OTTAWA - One only has to look at the proposed Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) - which passed in the House of Commons last year and is waiting for senate approval - to know why people are fed up this country's approach to crime.

There are a lot of things wrong with the new act, which will replace the existing Young Offenders Act, but there is one major flaw in the bill that stands out among the rest. The new YCJA effectively reduces the maximum jail sentence for most crimes from three years to two years for young offenders. With the exception of murder and aggravated assault, the most time a young offender will spend behind bars is two years.

If it's the offender's third serious offence, only then does the YCJA stipulate that he should receive an adult sentence, unless he and his lawyer are able to persuade the court that this not necessary. But serious violent offences would likely not include such crimes as armed robbery or sexual assault - because the law doesn't consider them serious violent offences.

Manitoba Justice Minister and Attorney General Gord Mackintosh says most people are probably not aware of the reduced-jail-time change. "This is the so-called new, tougher youth justice system that they're introducing." says Mckintosh. "It's actually contrary to what Canadians have been asking for."

What the new act stipulates is that for most crimes, young offenders must be released from jail and into supervision after serving two thirds of their sentence, turning a maximum three-year sentence into a two-year one. "What that means" says Mackintosh, "is that for a young offender who has raped at knife point, under the new legislation, the maximum sentence is two years of incarceration."

Pretty scary. At a time when Canadians are demanding tougher sentence for violent crime, the federal government is shortening sentences for young offenders.