Mr. Speaker, nothing strikes a chord more deeply in the heart and soul of Canadians than the issues we are discussing today. Crime, punishment and safety are essential to their feelings of security.
Bill C-45, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, deals with many very important issues such as detaining sex offenders of children, a system to remove parole board members, a system to deal with reoffenders while on parole, and a system to deal with restitution to the state. All these are integrally important changes that must be made to our justice system.
However, tragically we see again a lost opportunity. Another opportunity we have had to deal with these very important issues and make a significant impact upon our justice system has now passed us by because the government has done what it usually does, that is nibble around the edges.
I will make some constructive suggestions which my colleagues in my party have been working very hard on, issues that we have tried to convince the government to enact for the betterment of all Canadians. Once again it has failed to do so.
The first deals with sex offenders and it only deals with sex offenders of children. Sex offences involving anyone is a crime. Whether it is done to adults or children, by men or women, it is a crime and it needs to be dealt with very severely.
We should be imposing sentences which have as their primary purpose the protection of society and innocent civilians. What we have seen in the criminal courts for decades is that the rights and protection of innocent civilians have not been held in as high a regard as they could have been. In many cases we have seen the rights of the criminals being held in higher regard than the rights of innocent civilians. The innocent civilians have paid the price, tragically at times with their lives, because the justice department has not done its job.
There is the case in my riding of Robert Owens. He is a pedophile. He used to be a principal in a school. He had committed over 1,000 sexual offences. The reason they know that is he used to make a record on a Garfield calendar every time he committed a sexual offence on a child. His sentence was for 13 years. He served eight and a half years and is now living among his victims in my riding near a school. When we brought this to the attention of the authorities they said: "We are sorry. Our hands are tied. That is the law". If that is the law, the law is not doing a good enough job of protecting those victims living in that community.
I ask any member of the House to put themselves in the shoes of those victims. They have to completely change their lifestyle. The system does not address it but my colleagues have been putting forward constructive suggestions to address it.
We also need a better system to deal with parole board members. There have been numerous tragic situations brought up by my colleagues. There are some constructive things which we can do.
First, do not make them appointments, make them public service jobs.
Second, I was appalled that the parole board members, who are in effect acting like judges, go into the job often having no knowledge of justice issues. I find that absolutely incredible. How can we have parole board members who are appointed to positions making decisions with respect to people who could pose a significant threat to Canadian society when they have very little or no knowledge of the justice system? Make those people public servants and ensure they get the job based on merit.