Thank you.
I will make a short preamble. I will then ask a question of Mr. Biggar and perhaps also of Mr. Rudin and Ms. Sampson.
First, I categorically reject this statement that the Criminal Code is bias and racist. I would like to know how you can justify saying this. I have been a member of Parliament for barely nine months, but I will defend my friends on the outside, namely those within the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP. They have worked for 10 or 15 years on the Criminal Code, and I do not think that they helped create racist or bias provisions.
My first question is for Mr. Biggar.
Legal Aid Ontario benefits from truly exceptional conditions. Indeed, for your work you are paid on an hourly rate basis, whereas in Quebec, the system is based on mandates. You probably know that there was a megatrial at the Gouin Legal Centre near Montreal. Of the 36 accused members of the Hells Angels, 19 asked for legal aid. The work was paid so badly that the lawyers had to make a special request for compensation, something which never would have happened in Ontario, since you are paid an hourly rate and things are fairly comfortable there.
You say that it might increase cost, but when charges are laid, they are often laid against someone who is already in jail, and the services of a lawyer are provided at the hearing. The Legal Aid System in Quebec works the same way. When the evidence is disclosed, you have the right to see it, and if you see that there is no case to be made, you can refuse to continue to execute the mandate. I do not know how it works in Ontario, but it seems that things proceed with much more ease over there than in Quebec.
My second question is for Mr. Rudin, whom I will great once again, since we have already met twice.
You say that Native People are overrepresentated in Canada prisons, among other places in Saskatchewan.
In Montréal, every street gang is made up of Haitians. Sooner or later, they will be arrested, which will result in there being more blacks in jail. In fact, this is already the case. And just because Haitians make up street gangs, does that mean our legal system is racist? I am trying to draw your attention on that point. Blacks living in Montreal are good people. Some of them are even special. However, today, they are the ones who make up street gangs. I am not saying that this will be the case 24 years from now. In Europe, in certain prisons, there are black wings because they are only filled with blacks.
I am trying to draw a parallel between something you said earlier concerning native overrepresentation in our prisons. The Capital of Nunavut has a population of 3,800 citizens. Let's imagine that a person up there acts like a white, and threatens his wife with a firearm in the course of the dispute. The RCMP takes him away, and so on. He will be kept in the municipal jail, but if he is found guilty, he will have to serve his sentence in a federal prison. That will be 3,000 kilometres from where he lives. So, believe me, I understand your point.
But would you change my mind if there was a federal prison in Nunavut, located directly beside this individual's place of residence? Is it a question of distance? We were told two or three times that sending inmates 3,000 kilometres away did not make sense. As you said, there are prison gangs, and if you want to survive, you have to be a member of those gangs.
I talked about the overrepresentation of blacks in Montreal, which is the large city, and about your own problem with overrepresentation. Does this imply that the bill might not work, might be racist, bias or something else? I want to know what you think about this because we will have to take a position.