Mr. Speaker, in my short period as a member of Parliament this will be the third private member's bill I have had the pleasure to speak to and in favour of. The first two were from the member for York South-Weston and the member for Hamilton-Wentworth.
I am happy to see a motion such as this with the common sense attached to it the Canadian people have been talking about for many years, with government not listening. I am dismayed that common sense motions that reflect the mood of the Canadian people have not been forthcoming from the government and the ministers themselves. They primarily come through private members' motions.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Motion No. 39 today put forward by the member for Scarborough-Rouge River. I understand the intent of the motion. It is a terrific motion. It is long overdue.
The motion seeks to open up judicial and quasi-judicial hearings to members of Parliament. The member is quite right when he talks
about how an MP's daily role now takes on the form in many cases of an ombudsman. We are elected to represent our constituents. The people come to us with many concerns they want us to help them with.
A number of constituents have asked me what is wrong with the system. Why is this person in the country when he has such a terrible criminal record in the country he came from? Does no one know about these things? What goes on in those hearings?
The case the hon. member was involved with, the Malik case, was an example. It was not, as I understand it, criminal activity, but the individual had entered Canada under pretences. I understand he applied for a visitor's visa and the member went to bat for him on it, and then when the person arrived as a visitor he promptly claimed to be a refugee. Without the knowledge of this the refugee board would have no idea about the deceptive method by which the person came to Canada.
I disagree with the member for Bourassa when he said that this person's position could have been prejudiced. Truth never prejudices anything. Truth is always what we as MPs should be looking to see prevails in every case.
In his motion the member refers specifically to such hearings held under the Immigration Act, the Young Offenders Act, and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. As members know, in our lifetimes we have been absolutely frustrated and bewildered at times by some of the decisions that have come out of these three institutions.
We ask how the parole hearings can possibly release this person into society. We may never know why some of these things happen. We would never know unless somehow we as MPs, as the ombudsmen for our constituents, had some form of access. I am sure the member is not talking about intervener status or advocacy status. I believe that in the bill he is simply talking about automatic observer access to hearings, so that when he as a member of Parliament, a representative of the Canadian people, sees that something is going on that is simply not right, he will be better able to speak about it in the House of Commons and maybe in some legislation to try to correct the wrong that is being done or the interpretation of the rules that is not conducive to what the Canadian people feel.
Certainly the three institutions the member lists are the very three I have had the most trouble with in my lifetime with regard to their decisions. I support the member's bill with regard to these three institutions.
I am aware that particular members of my own party, the Reform Party, have been involved in the process and have experienced first hand some of the barriers that face MPs when they attempt to attend some of these quasi-judicial hearings. I am referring to the members for Fraser Valley West and Calgary Northeast.
The member opposite thinks this is a joking matter. But the fact is in these two instances a refugee had committed some serious crimes in Canada and the immigration people were trying to get this person out of the country. The person went before a hearing and the member for Fraser Valley West was in fact prevented from attending it. The member had personal firsthand knowledge of some of the things that may not have been brought out there. He was not allowed to present them. I understand that; that is proper. But the members of this quasi-judicial committee were not regarding this case in the fullest sense of the circumstances.
This was of great concern to the member for Fraser Valley West, because he had the protection of society as his first thought in mind. There was the very real possibility that if this individual had been granted refugee status he would have been a threat to the public safety of the citizens of British Columbia. He had a lengthy criminal record, including a charge of rape. However, as these MPs found out, the safety and the rights of victims are secondary to the rights of a criminal before a quasi-judicial body.
I know that the member for Scarborough-Rouge River has had personal incidents where he has run up against the same type of situation, where he was barred from attending a hearing. Motion M-39 would seek to change this situation by permitting automatic observer access to these hearings. Based on the member's own experience, I can fully understand the intent of the motion.
There are a couple of things we have to be very clear and very careful about. I am sure the member in his motion does not imply this in any way, but we have to be careful that MPs are not permitted to interfere in any way with the operations and decisions of these hearings as a participant. Nor should an MP be permitted to put pressure on the people who are conducting the hearings.
I suppose the motion-and perhaps the member for Bourassa has taken this opinion-could be interpreted in such a way that an MP would have some sort of official status or presence in the hearing. I do not think that is the intent of the motion. The wording should be examined very carefully: specific measures should be adopted to enable and ensure access for MPs. The word that needs to be clarified is "access". This could be taken to mean a whole range of things. I agree with the hon. member for Scarborough-Rouge River that his meaning of this is very specific and narrow. However, it could be interpreted, as it was by the member for Bourassa, as being perhaps prejudicial to any of these hearings.
Time goes quickly when speaking on a bill of such importance, and so I will close. Although this bill will certainly enable the MPs to do their job as ombudspersons for the people they represent and it will go a long way to helping us, I really believe that ultimately this government will have to take a look at the legislation that covers these institutions and make major reforms to them so that
the Canadian people once again can have some confidence in these quasi-judicial bodies that are supposed to protect our society.
My party and I will support the member's motion. We wish him success in this motion, wherever it may travel from here.