Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the land are outraged that their hard earned tax dollars are being used to pay restitution to a convicted criminal who fell while playing a racquet sport in prison.
As reported in yesterday's Globe and Mail , one Allan Roe Coulter is serving a nine-year sentence at Matsqui prison in British Columbia after being convicted of armed robbery. Recently a judge awarded the convict $18,750 of taxpayers' money for slipping on the floor while playing racquetball in 1988.
This is just another sample of the sorry state of our criminal justice system. Canada's overburdened taxpayers already pay well over $50,000 a year to keep a prisoner in jail for 12 months.
On behalf of concerned Canadians everywhere, I ask the government to begin the great task of fixing the system.