Madam Speaker, I am not at all sure that we can put a price tag on human life, as does the Reform Party. When a person dies in a freak accident, it also causes grief to the family. If we try to establish a link between one's grief, the prejudice that is caused and the person responsible for this grief, we are bound to make miscalculations or mistakes. It goes without saying that everyone is sad, particularly when we are the victims of a heinous crime. Our purpose is not to protect those who commit heinous crimes.
Earlier, I referred to the current dangerous offender legislation. A few days ago, we kept hearing about the Bernardo case and the case of the serial killer in western Canada who was eligible after 15 years, whose name escapes me for the moment. Reform Party members lump it all together and this is where they are wrong. Justice that is just, the word says it all, and unbending, yes, up to a point, must not allow itself to be flouted and ridiculed, which is very often the case in criminal trials when lawyers get to plea bargaining. But once the sentence and the rules of the game are clearly set out, justice itself must abide by the rules. That is what we are saying.
In our view, 15 years is not automatic. Reform Party members think that, on the morning of the fifteenth anniversary of someone's sentence, the prison warden brings the keys, opens the cell door and says to the inmate: "Off you go, now". That is what they would have Canadians think in the current debate. This is quite simply not what happens. Inmates already have to go through an involved process, which will be even more involved with the new bill, and Reform Party members paint a picture of prison walls coming down. I do not agree.