Mr. Speaker, a few months back when I was in Kelowna one of the Liberal members and I debated Bill C-68 in front of a crowd of about 400. I felt sorry for her because there were no supporters at that gathering for Bill C-68.
Before the debate started they brought in an RCMP officer who went through section 85. The officer wanted all the people to know what was now in the law pertaining to guns. It took him over an hour to go through all the laws related to guns presently in the Criminal Code. I could not believe all of the things that apply not only to criminals but to law-abiding people. I commend my colleague from British Columbia for being able to find a flaw in there which really addresses what we need to address, the criminal. I applaud her for coming out with this bill long before we saw Bill C-68.
Her bill is pretty small but it has a lot of meat in it. She probably has an underpaid staff that did a little work and managed to come up with it. The enormous justice department managed to come out with about 190 pages. It called it Bill C-68, the answer to all our problems. It was accomplished by who knows how many highly paid senior bureaucrats, probably all with many degrees in law. They are brilliant people who suddenly out of the blue sky had all the answers to our problems regarding law and order. They would straighten it out.
When I remembered that presentation by the RCMP officer I found it unbelievable how many laws were already on the books. Really what makes it most unbelievable is to come out with a new bill of which 80 per cent applies to law-abiding people.
All this morning and yesterday we debated amendments we wanted to make to Bill C-45. We wanted to get restitution for victims. No, said the Liberals. That did not pass. We wanted to have a review of parole decisions which were not good. A mistake was made, the guy was paroled and he killed again. We think there should be a review. No, said the Liberals. They were little common sense things we wanted to do for the victims, for the innocent of the country.
Instead the Liberals came out with about 190 pages, 80 per cent of which attacked the innocent and the potential victims. Instead of addressing the criminal in all of those pages, with all the high paid lawyers working in the justice department, all of these geniuses, all of these champions of the people, they came out with that while my colleague and a couple of staff came out with something which absolutely makes sense and which I guarantee Canadians want. It attacks the criminal. I really applaud her.
My colleague says it is just duplicating what is there. This bill was presented eight months before Bill C-68 probably was even thought about. I take that back. It had to take those bureaucrats at least a year and a half to make that bill. After all, we have to keep them employed. That is part of job creation, to put a bunch of gobbledegook together and sell it to the public and then sit back and blow your horn that you have really done a great thing.
We are trying to address crime. We are trying to fight criminals. My colleague across the floor talked about how it costs so much money to keep these people in prison. It is such a burden and we cannot afford it. I did a little research from the solicitor general's department. In federal prisons about 65 per cent are violent criminals and 35 are not. In provincial prisons it is the reverse.
With my little back in the mountains brain I tried to calculate that and it sounds like it comes out about half and half. Fifty per cent are violent and 50 per cent are non-violent.
Then I remembered the years I worked voluntarily in prisons, counselling and trying to help young people particularly. A number of 18 and 19-year olds in there were not violent. I could not understand why they were sentenced to prison for as long as they were because they were not violent. There were better things we could have done with these young people. The amazing part about it was most of these young people were in jail because they had a drug problem. If they were not into drugs they would not have been in the problems they were.
What is our justice system doing? We are putting those kinds of people behind bars, we will rehabilitate them, fix them up. Guess what? As I visit every prison across the country I find out by talking to inmates and guards, as will anybody on that side of the House if they do the same, that it is 10 times easier to get drugs in a prison than it is on the streets of the communities.
We have a drug problem. We are putting them in a situation in which it is easier to get drugs than anywhere else. Then six or seven years later we will put them back on the streets. They have gone through X number of programs because they know how to jump the hoops, but we have not taken the drugs away because we cannot control it.
That is not the Liberal way. Let us not get tough on things like that. Let us come out with a big document that says: "You farmer, you duck hunter, you rabbit hole shooter, you gopher shooter, you are the guys we will have to take care of. You have to start registering these things. It is a problem".
The next day we hear the Ontario attorney general saying: "Good grief, the trucks are coming through. We are not stopping them. They are being driven by criminals". They do not even know what is in them. Probably guns.
Then we go out to another border and the boats are coming across with nobody to stop them. The standing orders are if the boat sets at this angle it has probably got booze. If it is at this angle it has probably got guns. If it is at this angle it has probably got drugs. They have no way of controlling it.
To produce Bill C-68, which will to do nothing about those kinds of problems, it will probably cost millions. Why not put those millions into border patrol and starting fight crime? That is what the member is wanting to do with her bill. Start fighting crime and quit being so picky over replicas. Walk down the street sometime and if somebody comes up behind you and you do not see them and they stick a pencil in your back and say: "Give me your wallet or I will shoot", I will guarantee you will go through a trauma. It might as well be a .38.
It is the actions they do, these kinds of people. It is those kinds of people we want. Let us get them into jail. Let us look for alternative programs for those who do not belong in there. Let us genuinely start helping those who are helpable and let us start putting those away who are violent and dangerous and keep them where they belong. It would probably save lots of money there as well.
Do not write any more documents. That is enough of that. All morning long the victims were denied help from the government. All afternoon on Bill C-45 victims were not even talked about by this government. Thirteen Reformers stood in the House and defended the rights of victims. Not one on that side stood and did the same. Instead they voted all those motions down.
I just bet they will vote this motion down. I will bet on it right now, because it just makes sense. It is what Canadians want. They do not use their heads. They listen to the little front row people. Their strings are pulled, the puppets jump up, and they support. That is what has to stop in this country. I am tired of it. Canadians are tired of it. Let us get to work. Let us start fighting crime and quit being so ridiculous.