A Life Sentence Means a Sentence for Life

Our Conservative Government is committed to keeping our streets and communities safe for
Canadians and their families. Canadians want a country where justice is at the heart of our legal
system, where the hope for rehabilitation is balanced with appropriate punishment and prevention,
as well as compassion for law-abiding people and their families.
This is just one reason why our Conservative Government made a commitment in the 2013 Speech from
the Throne to ensure a life sentence for Canada’s most hardened criminals means exactly that – a
sentence for life.
Our Government is following through on this commitment and is introducing legislation to amend the
Criminal Code to ensure that Canada’s most heinous criminals – those whose actions mean we cannot
risk permitting them on our streets – remain imprisoned with no chance of parole.
This will include those convicted of high treason, as well as for first degree murders involving; sexual
assault, kidnapping or forcible confinement, terrorism, the killing of police officers or corrections
officers, or, any first degree murders that are found to be particularly brutal in nature.
At the same time, to address constitutional concerns, this legislation will permit a criminal serving life
without parole to apply to the Minister of Public Safety for exceptional release after no less than 35
years. As Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “This is not parole. Unlike parole, decisions will not rest
with an appointed board but with the federal cabinet, men and women fully accountable to their fellow
citizens and to the families of the victims of these crimes.”
Our Conservative Government is working to hold violent offenders accountable, enhance the rights of
victims, and help keep families and communities safe. This is our ultimate responsibility: to ensure that
we have a society where honest, hard-working people can raise their families, and prosper, in peace and
security.