Mr. Speaker, when I spoke earlier on Bill C-45, which would make changes to section 745 of the Criminal Code, a provision which allows murderers to apply for early parole, I gave seven reasons why I did not believe this bill should be passed by the House.
To my utter amazement those very cogent and well argued reasons were ignored by the House and by the government, and this bill is back before us today. There are a few amendments proposed, most of which would water down the bill even more. Because I believe this bill is a bad bill and not in the interest of Canada, I do not think it should be passed at all, amended or not.
I would like to place even more reasons, more thought and more argument before this House to try to persuade my colleagues to vote against this terrible piece of legislation.
I remind the House of the forgotten lives which we really should be considering as we talk about what should happen to convicted killers. A lot of these families and loved ones of murdered Canadians are asking who really got life. Of course the answer is the victims but not just the victims. For the families, friends and those who cared about them who were left behind their privacy and emotional well-being is being discarded by the consideration and the tender concern for giving hope and giving every consideration to cold-blooded premeditated murderers. We have to ask why these shattered family lives are not higher on the priority list of people in elected positions who consider and call themselves compassionate.
The wife of a murdered policeman said: "He took away our future when he shot my husband. My daughter has been without a father. The last review was quite hard. We had to relive his death. It was like losing my husband all over again. The pain is unbearable. I have been worrying about this since he became eligible to apply again".
The system allows brutal killers to continually cause havoc in the lives of the families left behind and extra pain and suffering beyond the murder of a loved one. We need to put a stop to that.
This bill violates the truth and justice, which we should demand and expect of our justice system. The people who loved and cared for murdered Canadians really believed the sentence that was handed down, life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years.
Then they come to find out that in fact it is not life in prison, it is only 25 years maximum, and rather than there being no eligibility for parole before 25 years, murderers are eligible after only 15 years. They feel betrayed by that and they have a right to expect transparency in what is said by the courts and in the sentences and penalties that are handed down.
The justice minister has been saying for months that section 745 was under review, leaving many people who had been asking for greater justice to believe that something substantial was going to be done to respond to their demands that murderers not be let out of prison early. The net effect of this bill is to continue to allow convicted killers to walk our streets after only 15 years if their application for early parole is successful. Only multiple murderers will actually serve 25 years. That is just a few years for each of the people who were brutally killed by that person.
Of the 70 killers who have applied for early parole so far-and remember that the section has only been in effect since the seventies-75 per cent of the applicants won early parole. These killers also have the right to apply more than once.
We have to ask if we treat murder lightly, why should not criminals? If only a few years is the result of taking somebody's life, in the view of most Canadians that is not a sufficient deterrent.
The emphasis should not be on the accused, the convicted person or the criminal. The emphasis should be on the protection of society, law-abiding citizens, our families and our communities. Section 745 is costly for law-abiding citizens. The estimates range anywhere from half a million to a million dollars for a single review.
Now, of course, there will be more layers of appeal laid on top of the ones already available because a superior court judge must now hear everything and decide whether the applicant has a chance for success. Then, if the criminal does not like the decision of the superior court judge, that can be appealed and appealed again. It is all at taxpayers' expense. All of this is at the expense of hard working, decent Canadians who are looking for justice and safety for their families.
The bill provides hope for those least deserving. It has no business being placed before Canadians who are asking for the opposite.
Using taxpayer funded legal aid resources in a bid to have debts to society reduced is simply not acceptable. No amount of time served is enough to replace or to pay for a precious, innocent life ended in pain and often in utter terror.
The public is demanding greater assurances for public safety. In my home city of Calgary, in just a few days the Calgary Sun collected over 35,000 coupons urging the justice minister and the Liberal government to repeal section 745 of the Criminal Code. Those appeals, like thousands and thousands of others from across the country, have fallen on deaf ears.
Here we see the Liberal contempt for victims. The Liberals have always said they have great compassion for people who have been victimized. There is a bill which will come before the House in the near future to prevent sexual assault victims from having to disclose their private writings and diaries in sexual assault cases in order to spare them the embarrassment, pain and further trauma of having to be further invaded.
However, under this bill there seems to be no compassion at all for the families and the loved ones of murdered Canadians. Over and over there will be these hearings, reviews and applications for early parole. One of the Liberal senators has actually written a newsletter to convicted killers telling them how they can best be successful in getting out of jail early and having the penalty they might have to pay for brutalizing other Canadians reduced. That is absolutely repugnant and reprehensible but that seems to be the attitude.
One of the members opposite said nothing can replace a life. Is he implying somehow that there should be no penalty at all? Is 25 years too much? Is 15 years maybe too much? Maybe it should be five years or maybe one. Maybe we should say "gee, you should not have done that. That was not very nice. Do better next time".
What actually is the government's attitude to protect the people of this country and the innocent, brutalized victims? There have been young women who have been sexually assaulted and actually burned alive and their killers are out applying for early parole after only 15 years. This is a disgrace. For the government to stand up and say it supports that and it is going to allow that to continue is absolutely reprehensible.
I think Canadians have a very clear choice. It is between a Liberal government, which believes that all the compassion, breaks and considerations should be given to brutal killers in our society, and the Reform Party, which states that we have to send a very strong message from our society that if someone violates the rights, freedoms, safety and lives of innocent, law-abiding citizens they will be punished. They will pay a price for that. They had better be deterred from that because society is going to take that very seriously.
For the families of murderer victims there is no hope. Section 745 gives hope to criminals, to cold blooded, brutal murderers. However, for their victims and the families of victims there is no hope for peace, for a sense of closure and no hope for justice under the Liberal government.
I urge the Canadian people to think about their choices in this matter when they vote in the next election.