Mr. Speaker, I too would like to add my comments to the debate on the third and final reading of Bill C-45.
The bill was advertised as the response by the Liberal justice minister to the demands of the Canadian public that section 745 of the Criminal Code which allows convicted, cold-blooded, premeditated murderers to apply to be let back into society after serving only 15 years of a life sentence.
A large number of people have signed petitions, clipped coupons, written letters, made phone calls and otherwise in a democratic society indicated that they wanted this section of the Criminal Code to be done away with. The justice minister promised that it would be done away with. He made representations to victims' groups and to the parents and other loved ones of murdered Canadians that he would respond to their demand that these convicted killers would not be let back into society.
What do we find has actually been done? Again, it is typical of Liberal deception that they tell Canadians they are going to do something to deal with an issue, but when what has been done is examined, what the actual measures are, they are toothless, ineffective and not at all as advertised.
The only thing this bill actually does is keep multiple murderers in prison for 25 years. Realistically this changes nothing. People like Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo were not going to get out after 15 years anyway. Mandating that they are now going to serve 25 years and hailing this as a great step forward for public safety is absolute nonsense. These people were not going to get out in the public under any circumstances.
What does it do to convicted killers who only murdered one innocent, law-abiding Canadian in a deliberate cold-blooded, premeditated manner? Does it get tougher for these people? Does it send a strong message that we do not like this kind of thing, that we are not going to put up with it in our society, that if a person takes an innocent life they are going to pay such a heavy penalty that they had better think a long time before doing it? No.
It gives these people even more avenues of appeal and redress than they had before. Instead of going directly to a parole board jury to have a decision made about whether they should obtain early release or early parole, now they have to convince a superior court judge that they have a reasonable chance before such a jury of getting a favourable decision. Then if they do not like the superior court judge's determination on that issue they can go to the appeal level of the superior court. If they do not like that, they can go to the supreme appeal court in Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada.
After all of that, they still have the possible right to go before a jury, which is what they are doing now.
Instead of doing anything to send a signal to killers that murder will not be tolerated in our society, instead of fulfilling promises to victims and families of murdered Canadians, we now have more loopholes, more avenues, more layers of redress, more appeals and using the system than we did before. That is what this bill does.
It does not change a thing for multiple murders, except send a message that somehow if only one person is killed, a murderer will be treated a lot more lightly than if it is more than one. It actually gives more loopholes and more hoops that convicted killers can access in our system. It will cost a lot more for Canadians to allow the access to these measures. It changes nothing that responds, in any way at all, to the legitimate demands and concerns of the families and loved ones of murdered Canadians.
What else does it do? It makes a small change that says that when a murderer finally gets before a parole jury to see whether he or she should be given early parole or early release, the decision of the jury should be unanimous instead of only two-thirds of the jury. This is truly a big step forward for democracy.
In our common law system in centuries of jurisprudence, unanimity of jury decisions has been mandated. Why the Liberals in the first place would have said that a parole decision could be made with only a two-thirds majority of the jury I have no idea. Thankfully they have finally seen the error of their ways and are going to correct that, and well they should. We can hail this as a huge victory for democracy. Now the Liberals are saying that a jury decision must be unanimous instead of only two-thirds. I am sure that Canadians will be cheering in the streets when this measure goes through. It is certainly significant for the rights of victims and murdered law-abiding Canadians.
I hope Canadians who are following this debate will not be taken in by the deception of this justice minister and this government who talk a lot about doing something with section 745 of the Criminal Code that everybody was complaining about. They did nothing to this section of even the slightest significance or, even in the smallest way, to respond to the demands of the loved ones, the families and friends of murdered Canadians to have more justice. The consequences of the actions that were taken against these law-abiding people to have some peace was absolutely nothing. Canadians need to know this.
We see this over and over again with the government. It makes great representations that it will change the things that Canadians are demanding. If anyone ever looks at what is actually done, it is totally insubstantial, totally at variance with the tough talk that is given to the people making the demands, to voters, to taxpayers.
Much is made that something is being done. It is not much. It is not even worth mentioning. That is why we have been standing in this House, time after time, speaker after speaker, on our side of the House asking the government to be honest with Canadians, to do something substantial to deal with their very real concerns.
The Bloc does not want us talking about murderers but unfortunately for them, that is exactly what this bill deals with. It deals with first degree murderers. It is pretty hard to talk about first degree murderers without talking about their crimes. Of course, the Bloc finds it rather extreme to talk about murderers when we are dealing with a bill that tries to address the way first degree murderers are treated in this country.
We have an incredible situation in the law-making chambers of our country where a government is doing absolutely nothing to respond to the real concerns of victims and their families. We have the official opposition saying: "This is terrible, we do not even want to talk about these things. We think this is a little too extreme and too difficult to even raise".
Only the Reform Party is standing in the House and asking: "Why don't we as legislators give the people of this country what they deserve, something firm, something strong, something substantive, something that sends the signal to criminals convicted of premeditated deliberate murders in this country?"
I urge this House again to vote down this bill, to reject this bill and to demand this justice minister brings back measures that really respond to the concerns of the people of this country.