TORONTO – As details continue to unfold in the frightening story of three Ohio women, abducted as teens and young adults, then confined to a house for the last decade, politicians north of the border are hearing witnesses on a private member’s bill related to kidnapping.
Bill C-299 was put forth by Kootenay-Columbia Conservative MP David Wilks, who made headlines a year ago when his comments about having no choice but to support the Harper government’s omnibus budget bill went viral in a YouTube video.
Bill C-299 would amend the criminal code to prescribe a minimum punishment of five years when a kidnapping victim is under sixteen years of age, unless the person who commits the kidnapping is a parent, guardian or person in lawful care or charge of the victim.
In other words, the bill pertains to kidnapping by a stranger.
When the bill was heard in Sept. 2012, NDP MP Francoise Boivin said the bill’s main problem was “introducing yet another minimum sentence.”
Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer also shared concerns about minimum sentences in relation to Bill C-299 in a Feb. 2013 statement. She said currently, offenders in serious kidnappings receive sentences of 10 to 15 years.
“The existing punishment in section 279(1.1)(b) of the Criminal Code already provides for the maximum sentence of life imprisonment in stranger kidnapping cases, but Bill C-299 removes the judge’s discretion in determining the minimum sentence,” she wrote.
On his website, Wilks said attaching the minimum sentence of five years would “recognize the severity of kidnapping a child under the age of 16 by a stranger.”
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