Mr. Speaker, I have just a few extemporaneous, spur of the moment observations to make.
Perhaps I can provide some perspective on the bill, seeing that my previous profession was that of probation officer and I was in a situation where administratively I dealt with the relationship with the 24-hour contact agency, which is the police, and saw the behaviour of probationers. Often on a Friday or Saturday night things were happening in the community, but the probation officer generally worked in an office in a day situation.
Certainly the well meaning intention of this private member's bill comes from legitimate police concern. It also can be seen that it comes from public concern. I am adding that it also comes from criminal justice probation officer concern.
The bill gives some reasonable discretion for giving additional tools to the police. That is not to say, as the member for Lanark-Carleton would say, that this is unjustifiable in the panoply of what is available to police officers. However, we must look at what are the administrative instructions to police specifically concerning their justice time and the allocation of dollars. They are under administrative control to be very careful not to arrest on a summary conviction unless they are absolutely pushed over the limit and it can be justified.
The operational difference between what happens on the street and the permutations that may be technically possible under the Criminal Code are quite different.
I am saying that the bill is going in the right direction because it conforms to the principle of minimal intervention and intrusion to achieve a public good. Rather than trying to change the offence from summary to an indictable offence, it looks at a specific exception to the law, which is a minimal change. It is the minimum possible to achieve the objective. It provides an exception to the summary procedure in a special case where the police officer decides for the general social good that it needs to be done. Currently, because of administrative procedures those are simply avoided and discounted by saying we really cannot intervene. Why should we do this?
The administration of justice has been brought into disrepute by the current operation in the streets. Probation orders are often seen to be not worth the paper they were written on. Orders are given and they must be obeyed. They will be obeyed increasingly if there are regular consequences that flow. We are talking about general deterrence and the community reputation that develops around the operation of these court orders, especially conditions of probation such as not to enter premises where alcohol is sold or not to be out after a certain hour, not to frequent a particular bus exchange where it seems that criminals have a tendency to meet, geographic prohibitions or prohibitions to stay at least one block away from a girlfriend's residence because of a history of assault or threats. The community expectation is that these orders will be obeyed and can reasonably be administered without unnecessary administrative barriers. We see in the newspaper that the offender received a sentence and was placed on certain conditions, and the public can feel good about it. However, when we investigate it, we find the administration of the order actually breaks down.
The probation order must have some real meaning. The public delegates to the authority and then has an expectation that the order will be administered properly. The orderly operation and administration of court orders are very important. I think the public reputation is that court orders are not that well administered.
We have to overcome the community notion that the order is not worth the paper it is written on. There are administrative barriers that could be put aside by this measure. The bill is minor in size but I am saying it is very meaningful in its practical form.
The member for Lanark-Carleton outlined in some technical sense how this bill went beyond the current bill before Parliament. I am recommending it is an additional permutation that would be very helpful for the administration of criminal justice in the community.