| Historical Information |
|---|
| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-379 – The Combating Motor Vehicle Theft Act – increases the minimum sentencing for a third offence of car theft.
The minimum sentence for the third (or more) offence is increased from six months to three years.
C-379 also makes theft for a criminal organization an aggravating factor, so courts will hand out harsher sentences.
Finally C-379 makes it so anyone prosecuted for car theft will not be allowed to get a conditional sentence. (Such as house arrest)
Progress
C-379 went up for its Second Reading vote and failed, with 149 votes in support and 170 votes against. Because the vote failed this Act will not proceed.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 147 | 1 |
| Conservative | 117 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 1 | 21 | 0 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Independent | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The Liberals are against it because mandatory minimum sentences just end up turning into Charter challenges and get reduced anyway. Imposing a stricter minimum sentence just opens up that issue again, and the Supreme Court ruled against it ages ago.
The Bloc support sending this Bill to committee for review. They don’t believe it’ll actually do enough to address the issue of auto theft, but they’re willing to see what comes up during committee review.
The NDP are also against bringing back minimum sentencing and would rather see stronger measures taken against organized crime, including making it more difficult for criminal groups to hide behind a numbered company (and as such make it harder for them to ship stolen vehicles out of the country). They also want to see measures taken to ensure car manufacturers are including better security measures in new vehicles.
Of note here is that Charlie Angus (NDP, Ontario, Timmins—James Bay) voted against the rest of his party in support of this Act.
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