Justice minister proposes more money for victims’ parents
Bill would pay $12K for children killed
QUEBEC — A bill that would raise the compensation paid to parents of a child killed in a criminal act to $12,000 from $2,000 was presented Thursday in the National Assembly by Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud.
Calling the increased compensation “an act of solidarity by the government,” StArnaud also specified that “you can’t replace a child with an amount of money.”
The one-year window to apply for compensation would be extended to two years, and a parent stripped of parental authority would no longer be able to claim compensation.
The bill would also raise to $5,000 from $3,000 the government’s share of funeral expenses, and would allocate as much as $3,200 for cleanup costs at the crime scene when a victim dies in a private residence.
And it would also allocate a payment of as much as $1,000 a month, for two months’ rent, to break the lease of victims of conjugal violence or sexual aggression.
St-Arnaud appealed to opposition parties to support the measure, saying he wants Bill 22 passed “very quickly.”
He proposed second-reading adoption on March 12, when the Assembly next meets, after a two-week break for constituency work.
St-Arnaud said the whole package would cost taxpayers about $2 million a year, and in addition he is contributing $50,000 of his $250,000 annual discretionary budget to the Association des fam- ilies de personnes assassinées ou disparues.
The minister is also urging other MNAs to contribute to the association, founded by Conservative Senator PierreHugues Boisvenu, whose daughter, Julie, was murdered in 2002 by a repeat offender.
St-Arnaud said he decided to contribute to the AFPAD after meeting Michel Surprenant, president of the association which represents relatives of people who have been murdered or who have disappeared. Surprenant’s daughter, also named Julie, was kidnapped and killed in 1999. No charges were ever laid. The minister said he also met Isabelle Gaston, whose two children were stabbed to death by their father, cardiologist Guy Turcotte, in 2009. Found not criminally responsible for the deaths of his children in 2011, Turcotte was freed in December after spending less than a year in a psychiatric hospital.
Asked whether the increased amounts of compensation would be available to victims of past crimes, StArnaud said laws are not usually retroactive, explaining it would be “complicated” to do so, and to determine how far back to go.
The minister admitted that, until now, Quebec has been the least generous jurisdiction in Canada in compensating crime victims. The $12,000 amount would be paid to the parents of all children murdered in Quebec, regardless of income and in addition to private insurance coverage, if there is any.
“I hope we can act rapidly,” he said, calling on opposition parties in the National Assembly to give his Bill 22 unanimous approval.