Mr. Speaker, I always listen to the hon. member for Esquimalt-Jean de Fuca with respect, for normally he uses good judgment. This time, while being less zealous than his Reform colleagues, he is still speaking along the same lines.
I understand what fear is. He speaks of people being afraid to go out in their own neighbourhoods. I do not have the statistics with me, but in Quebec, at least when I looked at the figure for my region, 80 per cent of murders were committed by people known to the victim. More often than not, three out of four times I think, the murderer was a former partner, and in more than half of these cases or something like that, he then took his own life.
I certainly take no pleasure in such statistics. We are seeing the increase of such cases, but at the same time the crime rate in Quebec and in all of Canada is decreasing. Yet the Reform Party is still raising the argument that people are afraid.
I am not all that old. I have not yet turned 50, but I can remember how frightened my grandmother was, how frightened my mother was, how frightened women have always been, both in cities and in the country. If we take fear as a criterion, there is unfortunately no polling company that can do a historical study for us, but I am sure that, if such a study were done, it would be seen that there have always been people who were afraid.
Yes, there are worrisome things going on, particularly where young people are concerned. I say that there are too many violent shows on television, and that could be one explanation.
As I know the member who just spoke to be level headed and usually of good judgement, I would like him to confirm to me, as he is a doctor, that there has been an increase in violent crime, leaving out the crimes committed by ex-spouses, people who know each other and criminals settling scores with other criminals. Is there really an increase where he lives in Vancouver, and is it that serious in this region? If so, he should warn us, because I may have to go to Vancouver next week.