Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I actually want to speak about clause 2 of the bill for a moment. There's nothing mysterious or controversial in clause 2. Clause 2 simply says that those with an application before the new commission are subject to the same rules about release or detention as those who have an appeal pending.
It's very straightforward, not difficult to understand and not controversial in any way, so why are we spending so much time on clause 2? I want to talk about it just for a moment, because I think it's important that we proceed.
We're spending so much time on clause 2 because one party has said that nothing will pass this Parliament until the carbon tax is removed. This has nothing to do with justice issues. It's the first time since I've been sitting on this committee or previously when I sat on the public safety committee that other political agendas have stopped the work of the committee.
It's quite legitimate, I think, for people to spend hours and hours talking about justice issues, but when they're doing it for a different political purpose, it makes it very difficult for this committee to remain collegial and for people in the public to accept that there's goodwill here to attack what is a very important issue.
Why do I think it's important that we move on quickly? Mr. Moore said that we have a process for miscarriages of justice. We do, and all parties agree that it's faulty. When you look at who has succeeded in getting a successful review of their case under the existing system, there have been something like 20 cases over the past 10 years. One of those people was indigenous. One of those people was Black. None of those were women. When you look at the overrepresentation of those groups in our justice system, there's clearly a need for us to make this reform that Bill C-40 proposes.
The way that's related to clause 2 is that there are people in prison right now who have been unjustly convicted, who are waiting for a release, which this bill and this clause would provide if their application were accepted.
Another political agenda, another statement by the leader of the Conservative Party that nothing will happen here is actually keeping, in particular, indigenous women in jail longer. The sooner we can pass this bill, the sooner we can start to address those systemic injustices in our system.
There's nothing controversial and nothing difficult to understand in clause 2. If people in the clause-by-clause process want to raise general questions, there will be a time for that. At the end, we will say, “Should the bill pass?” You can debate that—I'm from a rural area—until the cows come home. There's breadth in that, but under clause 2, there isn't that breadth.
I'd urge members to stick to the topic at hand, which is the clauses we're going through. When we get to “Should the bill pass?” fill your boots filibustering if that's what you think you need to do, but what you're actually doing is keeping people who have suffered miscarriages of justice in jail longer.