Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to speak to Bill C-218 which introduces once again the concept of the death penalty.
I commend my colleague from Prince George-Peace River for the courage to once again introduce this matter even though members opposite do not have the courage to put it to a vote in this day and age.
One of the questions that comes to me is why once again is it this party which is bringing forward issues that are relevant to grassroots Canadians. On the death penalty all we are looking at is a debate and a vote. Why is it necessary to fight like we did for victims' rights? Why are these things necessary? Why is the government not running with these kinds of issues and dealing with them?
I was reading a book put out by Amnesty International the other day entitled When the State Kills . I will read an excerpt because it may give some the understanding of exactly what is on the minds on this side of the House. It states: ``The important point is that
every person can improve himself and should be given the opportunity to do so, however serious his mistakes have been. The reason for this is that deep down inside each human being there exists the potentiality of development towards the highest good. A death penalty would totally destroy that potentiality". Think about what it says. I would repeat this part: "The important point is that every person can improve himself and should be given the opportunity to do so however serious his mistakes have been".
I can provide a litany, as my colleague from Prince George-Peace River has, of mistakes. I do not know how one could say that Wayne Perkin made a mistake by bludgeoning Angela Richards to death, stabbing her 26 times. It happened in my community. He had made that same mistake a couple of years before. He got out on parole and made the same mistake again.
These are not mistakes. They are cold calculated problems. It is a human deficiency. They are animal instincts. For the life of me I cannot understand how the concept of mistake gets into it. We must deal on a better level than this.
Some comments have been made by members opposite in their speeches that I must address. Their comments emphasize exactly some problems in their logic. The Bloc member said that according to current statistics homicides have gone down in all categories. The Liberal member also said that we have the lowest murder rate in years, and that the number of murders has actually gone down.
I could give them a good idea why that has happened. I was at a victims rights rally this past Saturday and talked to a lady named Leona. Leona and I have talked a number of times. She has been through hell and back. I will give the House an idea of why the statistics show that the murder rate-murder one in particular-has gone down.
I will read exactly what Leona said in reference to Bobby Gordon Oatway. Members may remember his name was brought up recently. He was to be let out on parole in my colleague's riding. The inhabitants screamed about that and they tried to let him out in Abbotsford in my riding. We got on that, so they flew him to Toronto and there he resides.
Leona said: "I am a victim of this man and can tell you more about him than most. He is one of the most dangerous kinds of pedophiles there is. For about 10 years of my life this man raped, beat and sold his child victims. One of the men he sold us to"-she was one of them-"was Clifford Olson." I am sure most of you know about Olsen.
"We have suffered every form of abuse imaginable. Mr. Oatway changed his name in prison. His name was Robert Gordon Stevens. When I was a young child and in my teens I was forced to witness several child murders committed by Oatway and a few deaths caused by Olson. We were forced to help bury the bodies of his victims. As one of Oatway's victims I fought this man every step of the way to try to protect the other children from the rapes and beatings and horrifying deaths which I was forced to witness".
She talked in this letter about how she tried to express exactly what was going on and how no one would listen. She continued: "The rapes I was subjected to, the numerous times I stepped in to try to prevent another death, the blood I have on my hands, the young children's bodies I have cradled as they lay there dead in my arms, it is all so horrifying and I was not the only one. There were many of us who suffered this horror. These murder charges have not and will not be brought against Oatway because I am classified as an unstable witness due to the horrors I have seen".
"There were originally 41 counts against Oatway when the charges from me were stayed, which left only 19. After all witnesses had testified crown counsel and Oatway struck a deal. He plead guilty to seven charges. Those were one rape, two bestiality, two buggery and two assaults against adult women. He was given a total of 10 years".
This is a man who has murdered children. This is a man who should have had murder one. This is a man who should have been given the death penalty. Why the statistics go down on these fellows is that lawyers and judges take over. They reduce murder one and murder two to manslaughter and to things called buggery, assault and bestiality. That is why the statistics are going down. It has become a game of lawyers and judges. They plea bargain case after case.
I have more. I have been there. I was at a funeral yesterday which involved such an issue. They say homicides have dropped. Outside the House there is a monument of RCMP officers who have been murdered in Canada. Roger Pierlet is on the monument. I met Roger Pierlet's brother and sister in my riding. They asked me to go to a hearing of John Harvey Miller who, with Vincent Cockriell, shot this RCMP officer to death in 1974.
They were both sentenced to hang until the Liberal government took away capital punishment. Then they were committed to life imprisonment. Cockriell got out about seven months ago. So much for life. So much for the family. So much for the considerations. Cockriell is now apparently scheduled to go to the university college in the Fraser Valley. I have to wonder what is wrong in this country. Death meant death, but it does not any more. It means ending up in the Fraser Valley college.
The statistics say murder is going down, but it is not. The problem is there is not a government in this country with the courage of the convictions of its electorate. That is unfortunate. It is unfortunate that we could not convince the government tonight to vote on such an important issue. It would find, like many in this country feel, the death penalty is a necessary deterrent and could be a positive thing, not a negative thing.