You don't really have to treat me like that.
---Laughter
(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Patterson. I have a short comment to make with regard to the Department of Justice and with regard to firearms. I have already stated my position with regard to firearms. The concern I have is along the same line as my colleague from Natilikmiot. I agree with him and I am in support of his comment. I was happy to hear the responses that were given by Mr. Minister.
I would like to mention something about youth being dealt with in the courts. Right now, the communities are getting more involved in the court system. I can use Baffin as an example because I'm familiar with the Baffin region. One of the things I have noticed is that the Inuit young people's criminal concerns are dealt with in the communities. I am very much in favour of this because it seems to be working very nicely. It seems to be very helpful. If a young offender had gone through the court system, they would go through more of a rough time if they had to spend some time in the correctional institute here or in the Baffin region. It is much better for the young offender to be dealt with by the youth justice committees in the communities.
I would like to congratulate the Department of Justice for decentralizing the court system and having the communities more involved with the court system. I think they are looking at ways whereby young offenders can be taken out on the land as punishment, or they can be given these types of courses. I think it is much to the benefit of some young offenders in our communities.
With regard to the elders who are involved with the youth criminal system, even though they are not given a wage for the job they are doing, they want to be more involved because they understand the problems and they feel they can contribute. They have also gone through the same problems themselves when they were young. It is because of this that the elderly who are volunteering today are more willing to help the youth in trouble.
As the people were getting into the...(inaudible)...there was a lot of...(inaudible)...between whether they should follow a southern life-style or...(inaudible)...that is when the communities were coming to a group of people in a new community. When we were younger, we had different ways of being disciplined. I am talking about myself as a younger person in the early 1960s. They had different ways of dealing with youth back then. Today it seems like the old people and the young people have a better understanding with one another. Because of this, the older people are taken more seriously and want to be more involved with the youth who are in trouble. I think if the older people in the communities are involved with youth, it can have a more beneficial result than a southern way of correcting and disciplining youth who are in trouble today. That is all I have to say, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.