Thanks for being here.
I have a couple of questions. Number one, I'd like to speak to the Mennonite ladies who are here. Thanks for coming.
I don't know if you've heard of Linden, Alberta, and Didsbury, Alberta. There's a huge community of Mennonites in that area, and that's the area I represent. I've played a lot of baseball against those guys. I could never beat them. They were always a little better than we were. I don't know how they had all that time to practise in the middle of their farming, but they were tough to beat.
Talking to these people, the very people I talk to, we talk about these kinds of issues and these kinds of things that we intend to do. I've asked them what we should do with a person who does this with a gun. Do you know what the response is? “Well, you have jails. That's what they're for. That's where they belong.”
They also believe heavily in going into the penitentiaries and doing the very fine work they do in rehabilitation, and I can appreciate that, because I went there with them on a couple of occasions before I got into politics.
So I don't really understand why you people would come here and oppose this, when I can guarantee you that I know a whole group in my riding who would support it heavily. That would be a question. I'll give you a minute to think about it, because now I'm going to go to the Bar Association.
Shooting down a crop-duster, I thought, was a very poor example of what we're getting at here. Number one, I know that there's self-defence, but I can't really find any root cause of anything that would cause a person to pick up a gun and shoot a crop-duster down. You shot a crop-duster down? You took a gun out and shot a plane? And you think you're justified in doing that because he flew too close to your house?
In my riding I've seen people who accidentally got on private land--who thought they were on crown land hunting--and the owner came out and shot them. Are you justified in shooting somebody who got on your land? Maybe they were trespassing, but maybe they unintentionally trespassed. Nevertheless, do you think you should pull out a gun and shoot them? You can find examples like that, and I just can't find any root cause or any excuse for taking up a gun and trying to take someone's life, other than self-defence.
As far as the Bar Association goes, I'm really confused about you people, because I have lots of lawyers in my riding who seem to think that this bill is right on, that it's what we should be doing. I've even talked to two lawyers, believe it or not, who are Liberals who believe this is what we need to be doing. And you say you're representing all the lawyers in the country? Well, I don't think you are.
And I want to emphasize this. We had the police come here, and I guarantee you, with their presentation to the committee, that the police out there, everywhere, are supporting their position at this table. Why is that? Other groups of people have come here representing groups like the police, and the support is there. I can guarantee you that coming here against this legislation is not fully supported by your people. That doesn't make sense to me.
The last question will be on the New York City experience. Are you familiar with that, with the “broken window” theory and what that has caused? They hired a whole bunch more police and built more jails to try to curb crime, and you went to jail regardless of the offence. I understand that it's one of the safest cities to be in now.
If you have any comment on that, I'd like to hear it. Thank you.