Mr. Chairman, while I respect that ruling, the purpose of this bill, in my understanding and after listening to all of my colleagues and the testimony, is to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of the sex offender registry. It is my belief that my amendment does exactly that.
We heard testimony before this committee from people who use the sex registry, testimony that indicated that, at least in the opinion of some witnesses, if we register every single person convicted of an offence, we may risk clogging the registry with a number of names that are not appropriately on the sex offender registry. If that's the case, when an emergency situation arises where the police need to do a very, very fast search, such as in a case where a child goes missing, this will cause them to have to search and investigate many more people, some of whom would be a waste of time, and that will slow down the police.
Now, I recognize that not everybody may agree with that testimony, but I certainly was struck by it. So while I respect the ruling of the chair, I would respectfully challenge the ruling of the chair, at least so that I can put my amendment forward, have a discussion with my colleagues, and then have a vote on it. I would respectfully challenge the chair's ruling that my motion is out of order.