Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/261

Rh Mr. Fuuron. There is one other matter I shonld explain. Your counsel, Mr, Beaser, asked me if 1t wauld be possible for me to arrange to have somebody from either our Federal Department of Justice or a previncial attorney general's office to be available to discuss with you the questions of enforcement of the law which we have in Canada.

I regret that again owing to the time facter J was not able to ar- range to have any such official with ine.

The. For the record, the Chair might state that Mr. Fulton refers specifically to the law covering crime comics.

Mr. Furron. That is correct. But ( don’t want the facet that no one else is here with me from any of the executive branch of govern- ment to be taken as an indication that they would not have liked to eome had they been able to arrange it, The attorney general's de- partment of the Province of Ontario expressed their regrets they could not make available a wittiess in the time at their disposal),

1 thought perhaps at first T might make a few general remarks re- garding the similarity of the problem as it appears to exist in our two countries.

But before I do so, there is one other introductory remark I would like to make, and that is as to my own position. I think in fairness it should be stated that Iam not a memher of the Government of Can- ada; nor, as a tnatiter of faci, am 1a member of the majority party.

Tam a member of the opposition party. Therefore, I think T should say that nothing I say should be taken as necessarily indicating the views of the Government of Canada.

1 will try, however, to the best of my ability, to summarize what I think to be the views of the Government of Canada with respect to this maiter,

When I come to subjects or aspects of it in whieh I feel that it is net safe to indicate that this might be the general view, I shall try to remember to indicate ta you that this is my own personal view. But in everything {say I think £ should make it clear I am not. here in a position to speak for the Gevernment of Canada, bni. simply as an individual member of Parliament interested in this problem.

I think it goes probably without saying that we, our two coun- tries, find themselves very much in the same situation with respect to this problem of crime comies and their influence on the matter of juvenile delinquency. Our two civilizations, our standards of living, our method of life, are very similar. Our reading habits are by and large snilar to yours. Indeed, speaking geuerally, probably the ma- jority of the reading material in the form of publications, that is, periodicals as distinguished from daily newspapers, have their origin here.

With respect to crime comics, I don’t wish to be taken as saying that it is by any means one-way stream of traflic, because 1 under- stand some of those published in Canada find their way here and present you with a problem, but I think by and large with respect to the movement across the border of crime comics that is one thing where the balance of trade is somewhat in your favor.

Those features indicate that the problem is similar in both countries.

The. It would be safe to say that the balance of trade is largely in our favor in this case, would it not?

Mr. Forrox, That is my impression. You will appreciate that as much as we have enacted legislation which makes it a criminal offense