A new law that would implement harsher treatment of young offenders will be introduced in the next few months, but Justice Minister Vic Toews is backing away from the prospect of bringing children as young as 10 into the criminal justice system.

Mr. Toews, who publicly mused this summer the courts should handle 10- and 11-year-olds who run afoul of the law, told CanWest News Service yesterday there is little appetite among his provincial counterparts for lowering the age of criminal responsibility.

He made his comments amid a renewed debate on how the system should handle wayward children, after a group of Winnipeg children, aged seven to 11, locked a disabled 14-year-old boy in a shed and set it on fire last weekend. The teenager was rescued from the burning building.

"I haven't heard a provincial attorney general coming to me and saying that the age of responsibility needs to be lowered," Mr. Toews said. "They indicate it's a child welfare issue and I have no plans to change the law. It's their jurisdiction."

The Youth Criminal Justice Act applies to young people aged 12 to 17.

Younger children who have run-ins with the law are the responsibility of provincial child-welfare authorities, which offer treatment in group homes.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006