Turning kids into crooks

>> New federal law threatens to blow holes in Quebec's model juvenile court system

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Some carry inscrutable expressions of fearless disdain. Others stand unsteadily erect, as if battling an impending full-body sob. Some are cold-eyed, cool players, who nod as their weeping mothers lambaste them in the hallway. Others are clumsy and awkward, obvious targets of adolescent rejection. Many wear shabby-looking T-shirts and jeans, while others glide to the stand in flashy vinyl sweats. Most arrive with one parent at best.

Every weekday morning such troubled teens face youth court justice Quebec-style on the second floor of the juvenile courthouse at Bellechasse and St-Denis. In a slow-moving, subdued ritual, the adolescent approaches the stand in front of a judge who peers down ponderously. Pages are flipped through. Lawyers are grilled on their viewpoints. Social workers are consulted.

In one case, a tiny, angry-looking boy is judged sufficiently regretful to return to the school where he threatened a bodyguard. In another, a judge mulls over the future of a boy with dark, cold eyes who attacked his mother and seeks to move overseas to be with his father. The judge pains over the dilemma of letting him leave town or force him to remain for his anger management course. After a lengthy plea from a social worker, the judge reluctantly agrees to allow the boy to leave.

The never-ending show of contrition, pathos, sadness and regret is more than reality drama. To those close to the system it's a source of extreme pride. Thanks partly to the justice system, Quebec regularly boasts the lowest national rates of youth crime (only PEI occasionally edges us). And Quebec's youth offenders are also the least likely to reoffend or continue in lives of crime.

The tough law of the west

But lately, virtually everybody involved in Quebec's youth justice system is angry about impending federal legislation that will force the province to overhaul its methods of dealing with underage offenders. The federal get-tough-on-crime legislation, known as C-7, which pundits have described as a Liberal attempt to curry the no-nonsense agenda of the western provinces, will force Quebec to replace its methods with a system oriented towards punishing rather than rehabilitating youth.

The legislation, passed in the House of Commons this spring and soon to become law after rubberstamps from the Senate and the Governor General, will force those as young as 14 into adult court when charged with murder, manslaughter, sexual assault and aggravated assault. No longer will there be a publication ban on the names of youth convicted of such deeds and such youth could receive up to life in prison rather than the current 10-year maximum. Although ferocious opposition in Quebec has won provinces the right to raise that age to 16, many consider that still too young. Others envision legal challenges that would force the province to again lower it to 14.

Bill C-7 will also make it impossible for judges to send youths convicted of minor crimes--the infractions that constitute 99 per cent of all youth offences--to treatment in a rehabilitation centre. According to C-7, judges who find children guilty of these less-serious infractions will have to sentence them to either a warning, a fine or community work.

Many believe that the law will destroy efforts to reform a wayward youth. "Do we want to help a kid become a full cooperating citizen or do we want to make him a professional criminal?" asks Pierre Lamarche, director of the Association of Youth Centres. "I think it's obvious that we want to give a kid all the chances to be exposed to his shortcomings and work on them, and when the whole process is completed, hopefully we'll have someone who is much more sensitive to the needs of the community."

Quebec's success in rehabilitating young offenders is the result of a long and intensive effort, says Lamarche. "It's not that we're nicer or brighter than anyone else in Canada. Fifty years ago we decided to work seriously on delinquency. We created professionals to deal with youth, we have psychologist-educators who are university-trained professionals unique to Quebec. Their sole training and orientation is to help delinquents reintegrate into society." As well, he mentions that the province has an impressive network of institutional centres that aim at rehabilitating young miscreants.

Billy, meet Mad Dog

Lamarche says that the law also flies in the face of academic wisdom as studies have repeatedly demonstrated that putting young people in with hardened criminals only increases their chances of re-offending. "If they approach it as a lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key, then they're on the wrong track. If you want to throw a child in a cell with a Hells Angel, you're really going to take care of his future," says Lamarche.

The law, by removing the discretionary powers of the court, will also distort the context of crimes and make justice harder, say others. "Before trial we evaluate the level of risk posed by a youth and we're able to do a very good analysis of his tendencies," says Clément Laporte, Youth Offender Coordinator for the Youth Centre of Montreal. "If it's a kid caught doing a break-and-enter, it's important to know if it's his 500th time or his first time. Was he pressured into it by his friends? The new law attaches rules that impose automatic penalties on those convicted and it will wipe out the current practices and force a judge to punish a youth according to the infraction rather than the individual's situation."

And ironically, the new legislation will see some young criminals back on the street earlier. Unlike the adult system, in which an inmate is eligible for parole after having served one-sixth of his sentence, youth offenders remain in their facilities for the entire duration of their sentence.

"The adult system works badly. It's oriented on the system of 'doing time.' With this notion, we're not going to be taking into account the needs of the children," says Cecile Toutant of the Philippe Pinel Institute for the criminally insane. Toutant has still not met a single individual in the field in Quebec who likes C-7. "The provincial assembly passed a unanimous motion against it, so the federal government can't say it's just the separatists who are opposing Ottawa this time."

Many youth-oriented groups in the rest of Canada have opposed the law, including the Child Welfare League of Canada, which has strongly urged the federal government to imitate the youth models currently used in Quebec.

Criminals made, not born

The League has pointed out that Quebec's youth-crime rate has remained low partly because the province frequently opts to send young misfits to youth protection agents or rehabilitation officers rather than a judge. Unlike in the rest of Canada, where juvenile cases are on the rise, and one of 33 children between 12 and 17 ends up before a judge, in Quebec only one in 86 is forced into juvenile court.

"We don't need a law that'll increase adult sentences for adolescents. We should continue to help youth get out of a life of crime as much as possible," says Toutant. "Why would we need a new law that will cost millions of dollars to install and force us to redo all the things that have been working well here?"

According to estimates published in Le Devoir last May, the law will cost the province more than just their flashy rehabilitation rate. The Justice Ministry will have to fork out $3.5-million to update the legal databank and another $2.8-million to renovate the courthouse for more jury trials. In total, C-7 is predicted to cost the province $10-million up front and another $20-million per year.

According to a 23-year veteran of the youth justice scene, the system is already seriously underfunded. "They're short of cash. They put out fires but there aren't enough judges and lawyers," says Alain Beausoleil. He also stresses that many young people involved in crime are from extremely poor families and they require all the support they can get to compete in the adult world. "The state wants to protect our children but it's not easy," he says.

Many would like to see the province somehow ignore the legislation. "There will hopefully be a way," says youth court lawyer Diane Trudeau. "We have such a good system of managing youth justice, there will be a very strong will to continue doing the things we're doing and continue our philosophy," she says. "Punishing youths with adult sentences is disproportionately harsh because their notion of time is not the same as adults. A year is a long time for a kid."

Rather than imposing adult models onto youth crime, she'd like to see the reverse. "We think it's the adult system that should be improved. The idea of replacing our successful youth system with the bad adult system doesn't make sense. It's as if nothing has been learned."