That's what I'm getting to. May I, please?
If we look at the studies done, we see that the crime rate is going up in Canada if we compare victimization studies. There's a very interesting study that the Vancouver Board of Trade did in 2007-08. It looks at victimization surveys and indicates how American crime rates and violent crime rates have been falling, and that cities like Vancouver and Winnipeg have crime rates, especially in the areas of property and violent crimes, that exceed most American jurisdictions.
The distinction between the American statistics and the Canadian ones is the fact that many of the American crimes are committed with guns that are banned in Canada. I think all of us here can agree that we don't want to go down that road. But we have seen a dramatic drop in violent crime rates in the United States as a result of the policies they have implemented. You may indicate that they haven't worked, but there is clear evidence. Go to the Vancouver Board of Trade study, and go to some of the other studies I can send you.
The other thing is the suggestion that Canadians should be at risk when the crime rate from 1962 to today has in some respects tripled or more. Our government believes that we should put the safety of Canadians first and the interests of criminals second.
In 1971 Solicitor General Goyer said it was too expensive to keep prisoners in prison, and we had to let the prisoners out on the street. He said that from then on in Canada, we would emphasize the rehabilitation of prisoners rather than the safety of Canadians. That was his statement in the House of Commons in 1971, and that has been the direction of the Liberal Party of Canada for the last 40 years. It's the wrong direction, I submit, and not one that we're going to follow.