It is? I guess I have to say that is the reason that you are on that side and I am on this side and we are the ones with the majority, praise the Lord.
I can only say that in my years as prosecutor under the old Juvenile Delinquents Act I saw a number of cases where the child was given the benefit of the doubt. I remember one in particular where a young man came up before us accused of 40 counts of break and enter. He had made the mistake in the particular exercise on the day. He was breaking into cars and stealing car stereos. He happened to be doing it in a shopping centre in Halifax. The cars were all parked against the fence and an off duty policeman who happened to be mowing his backyard heard the noise, looked over the fence and the inevitable happened.
The boy was charged and I was prosecuting. There were a number of people who came along. It was a very difficult family background.
A very well respected school principal came to speak for the boy, who had scored very well on intelligence tests, who had certainly a lot going for him as he had a lot going against him. In consult the prosecutor, the defence, the judge, the probation officers, the police officers, everybody got together and asked: "What are we going to do about this?" There was a compromise reached. A family member would be willing to take responsibility for this young man and ensure that he was not subjected to the same influences he had been subjected to in the family group, that he would not see the rest of the family who were the bad influences, et cetera.
To make a long story short, that young man eventually won a scholarship to a famed international institution of higher learning and is today leading a very productive and wonderful life in this country where he is making a great contribution.
I do not hesitate to say in the interests of truth, justice and the Canadian way that was one of the success stories. As I know my two colleagues on the other side from law enforcement would be quick to agree, we did not have a lot of those success stories. We had more of the other kind.
The point again is if that young man had been, as we used to say in those days, piped to the juvenile detention home I do not think he would be where he is today. I do not think he would be a productive member of society. I think he would probably be in super max or he would be dead in all likelihood.
I guess I have to say that success story means more to me than all the ones with whom we did not succeed because they were too far gone, it was too late and so on. The ones with whom we did not succeed went through the detention process, many of them in detention until they had passed the age of being juveniles, until they turned 18 whereupon they went out and committed some further offence and went to Dorchester Penitentiary or Sackville correctional centre.
If we do not take risks to attempt to save young people then we are just consigning young people to a life of crime. That is why I speak against this motion. That is why I say we have to look at the way the child is going. The word child is very important here because we are talking about children when we talk about young offenders. We are not talking about hardened criminals.
I also in conclusion would like to say that given the tenor of this motion and given the statements I have heard from the members of the Reform Party in particular, I am sure that we can then count on the support of such members as the member for Crowfoot and the member for Calgary Northeast to support us when we come in at some future time, as I am sure we will, with stronger gun control measures. I am sure as former police officers both of these gentlemen know how important it is that guns in particular be kept out of the hands of a majority of people who have no idea how to use them.
What about those kids who are potential criminals. You do not want guns lying around the house do you?
I hope that hon. members will see their way clear to support this kind of legislation when and if it comes up in this session of the House.
I have spoken with police officers in my riding in the province of Nova Scotia and among the strongest supporters of tougher gun control legislation are indeed the members of the police force.
At any rate, I would just like to say that I am delighted to speak on this topic today because I am very proud of the crime and justice package that was in the red book. I know that the crime and justice package will in due course come into this House in the form of legislation. I am sure that as with all of the promises in the red book those legislative measures will make Canada a better place. Also remember that being a better place is also a place of humanity and compassion.