Mr. Chairperson, I'm going to move that Bill C-31 in clause 25 be amended by replacing line 30 on page 13 with the following:
detention on the expiry of 25 days after the
To provide a bit of an overview on this particular amendment, this is in essence talking about the importance of judicial overview. I appreciate that the government does have some amendments that are coming up, and that's one of the reasons why I withdrew the LIB-19 amendment, because I do much prefer the lower number of seven, which the NDP were proposing, and I understand the government bill is proposing 14 days before the first real opportunity for judicial overview.
This particular amendment, on the other hand, emphasizes that, if you do not meet the requirements within that first 14 days, or whatever alternate day is chosen by the committee, Mr. Chairperson, it becomes an issue of the second incidence before you get to have that opportunity for judicial overview.
My understanding, based on papers that are following this particular amendment and on some announcements that were made yesterday, is that it's going to be a six-month period for that second opportunity for review. We believe that's far too long. It would be far more appropriate to have it 25 days after the first judicial review, so the purpose of this particular amendment is to emphasize that point.
Yes, it's great that we would have a judicial review, ideally, with seven, possibly with 14 as an alternative, but at the end of the day, the second incidence in terms of having that review would be far greater by having it 25 days after the first review.
That's the purpose of this particular amendment. We encourage members to vote in favour of it.
Thank you.
(Amendment negatived)