Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this much needed bill. I am also pleased to hear about the treaty and the signing of it. The legislation is a real motherhood and maple syrup issue. No one can disagree that chemical weapons are a danger to our planet Earth and must be controlled.
Once again the government has shown its failure to understand the situation. The government is not proposing banning chemical weapons because it is the right thing to do, it is proposing to rush the legislation through for political reasons. Canadians should not confuse the government's intentions in the process the bill is receiving. This government wants passage of this bill because if Canada is one of the first 65 governments to ratify the convention the government will receive political favours.
Just as this government has told Canadians that the firearm control bill was for public safety and the sentencing bill was a deterrence on crime, this government will tell Canadians this bill makes the world a safer place. Just as Bill C-68 was not about public safety and Bill C-41 was not about a deterrence for criminals, this bill is not about world safety in the eyes of government. This bill is about giving this government bragging rights.
Recent events have shown that chemical weapons are becoming the weapons of choice among terrorists. The sarin attack in Japan has shown that terrorists can do the maximum physical and psychological damage at low cost. The attacks on Kurds in Iraq have shown that civilian populations are at the mercy of those who control chemical weapons.
We on this side totally agree that measures must be put into place to monitor and detect those who could easily obtain chemicals to spread terror. Canadians must understand this bill will not guarantee that terrorists cannot obtain, combine and release certain chemicals upon an unsuspecting public. This bill only approves monitoring of certain chemicals that could be dangerous, just as Bill C-68 only monitors law-abiding firearms owners.
Just as Bill C-68 cannot prevent criminals from using illegally obtained firearms to wreak havoc upon Canadians, this bill will not prevent determined terrorists from illegally obtaining the chemicals they need. The justice minister continually told Canadians that the gun legislation was necessary for public safety but later admitted no legislation could prevent those criminals truly wishing to use an illegal firearm from using one in the commission of a crime. Let us not hear any talk from those opposite that this bill will make public safety certain. This bill will not do that.
What could have prevented those wishing to use chemicals as a weapon is tougher sentencing. Unfortunately the justice minister did not do that in this bill or in Bill C-41. Instead of sending a message to terrorists and would-be criminals that Canada will take a tough stand to stop the use of chemical weapons by imposing severe sentences on dangerous criminals who consider this, the government offered alternative measures in Bill C-41 and no measures in this bill.
We on this side of the House readily admit and know one important fact that the government either cannot or will not admit. We know there are criminals who cannot be treated or rehabilitated. These criminals are the kind who would use chemical weapons. Those are the individuals who require severe sentences up to and including life in prison. Life in prison for those opposite means life: no review, no conditional release, no end of sentence release. Life means incarceration until the criminal is no longer able to threaten Canadians. It means the criminal never returns to society.
The government had the opportunity in Bill C-41 to enhance this legislation by including severe sentencing. The government instead rushed this bill through the House to enhance its reputation rather than to send a message to criminals in this bill or in Bill C-41.
Instead we get legislation that makes it a severe crime to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation but no increased sentencing for those who use chemical weapons upon helpless victims. This government always puts legislation together that promises more than it delivers. Just as the government would tell Canadians this bill is to enhance public safety, the real reason for this bill is so some of those opposite can bask in the limelight of world opinion.
If this government wanted to deter the use of chemical weapons, it could have and should have included sections in this bill to change the Criminal Code, to put in punishing long sentences for anyone dealing with or using chemical weapons. This government states it is bound by international obligations to include punitive criminal sentences in Bill C-7, an act respecting the control of certain drugs introduced by the Minister of Health.
This government states international obligations obligate it to pass this legislation. I do not see any punitive sentencing measures in this bill. As I said, the bill is the right thing to do but the reason the government is doing it may not be so.
Instead of introducing legislation for public safety and the public good, the government is introducing the legislation for its individual praise from the world community.
If the government wanted to send the message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated instead of simply pushing an inspection bill through the House to gain personal glory, it should have included measures that will deter criminals from even thinking about using chemical weapons.
If the government can increase sentences for users of soft drugs it can increase sentences for users of dangerous chemicals weapons, but it has not. I will support this inspection bill even though it has no measures that deter criminals. The government has failed in that respect.
The government joins the United States in the failed attempt of its war on drugs by removing civil liberties by allowing inspectors to read medical files of Canadians. It increased jail sentences for casual soft drug users because the United States told it so. The government will not legislate increased sentences for the use of chemical weapons.
Half measures and dreams of glory on the international stage fuel the government's desire to rush the bill. Perhaps now that the voters of Ontario have chosen Reform principles of justice the government may change its bleeding heart ways not because it is the right thing to do, not because it may lose votes if it does not; it will do it because it is the right thing to do. It is too bad the government once again chose the wrong reasons.
We fully support the bill as an initial step in deterring the crime of the use of chemical weapons of any nature.