Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise on behalf of my constituents of Okanagan-Similkameen-Merritt to express our opposition to the Liberal plan to amend section 745 of the Criminal Code. We are talking about Bill C-45 which is the Liberal government's thinly veiled support of the so-called faint hope clause which nullifies the Criminal Code's penalty of life imprisonment for first degree murder.
Millions of Canadians, including my constituents, believe that section 745 of the Criminal Code should be abolished because it serves no purpose. It is no deterrent for people who go out and ruthlessly take the life of another or others.
At best, Bill C-45 introduces a few cosmetic changes to the law, but it does not repeal the faint hope clause. The Liberal justice minister is adamant in refusing to do what Canadians are asking the government to do.
Canadians want to take away the right of a convicted murderer to have their sentence reduced. Canadians do not want convicted murderers to serve anything less than the sentence they have been given. Victims of Violence, the Canadian Police Association and millions of Canadians want section 745 to be repealed. However, the Minister of Justice, just like the separatist Bloc members, has ignored their pleas and are pushing Bill C-45 through the House.
The bill makes a few amendments to section 745. First, the right of multiple murderers to apply for a judicial review for early parole will be removed. However, instead of making this provision retroactive so that it would apply to serial killers such as Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo, who are already incarcerated, it will apply only to those convicted of multiple murders after the bill comes into effect. If a person kills people before the bill comes into effect they still have a chance, a faint hope, to avoid serving the full sentence which our Criminal Code sets out as the penalty for their crime. These convicted murderers can still apply for parole. They are exempt from the bill.
Canadians do not support giving Paul Bernardo hope. The people I represent want to have a binding national referendum on the return of capital punishment. The case of Paul Bernardo gives Canadians a very real reason to want a national vote on returning to our statute books the penalty of death. The Liberals want to give people like Paul Bernardo hope.
The Liberals are giving serial killers who are already incarcerated a better chance to get out of their sentence than those who will commit multiple murders in the future. Canadians are finding it very difficult to believe that the Liberals think they can sell this as some kind of deterrent.
This Liberal government should be giving Canadians hope. The Liberals should have the courage to give Canadians what we want and that is a binding national referendum on capital punishment. The Liberals would rather do nothing. That is what the Liberals do, nothing.
The Liberal's campaigned on a platform featuring political change and promises, promises, promises, just like their promise of jobs, jobs, jobs. Then they say they will scrap the GST, but once they are elected the Liberals do nothing.
The defence minister tackles what the Prime Minister says will be a difficult job of cleaning up the top echelons at national defence in the wake of the Somalia crisis. The Liberal defence minister does nothing. He hides behind the Somalia inquiry and says he can do nothing.
The justice minister has done nothing to prevent serial killers who are already in jail from getting a chance of a reduced parole. The Liberal justice minister has done nothing about this.
This bill is a sham. It is not what Canadians are asking for. The bill would ensure that a murderer will have to convince a superior court judge that their application has a reasonable chance of success before they would be allowed to proceed before a jury. This sounds like a good measure. However, considering that applicants have a 72 per cent success rate since May 1994 in having their parole ineligibility reduced, it is unlikely that a judge will find fault with the majority of applications and dismiss them.
In short, the new hurdle the Minister of Justice so proudly stands up to defend, which the Bloc so quickly supports, is really no hurdle at all. We will continue to see far too many section 745 hearings.
Finally, Bill C-45 stipulates that a section 745 jury will have to reach a unanimous decision before the applicant's parole ineligibility is reduced. At present only two-thirds of the jury need to find in the applicants favour. What kind of change is this? This is typical Liberal do nothing tinkering with our criminal justice system. I am sure the Liberals will be shaking each other's hands and patting each other on the back in an orgy of self-congratulation, but Canadians will not be congratulating the Liberals.
Canadians feel that section 745 should not exist at all. What the Liberals are doing is absolute nonsense. This bill is nonsense. The Liberals are most concerned about the rights and privileges of criminals and they have ignored the rights of victims of crime. If the Liberals had any basic simple understanding of victims' rights, and they do not, they would have abolished section 745.
Canadians can see clearly that the Liberals are actually creating categories of good and bad murderers. If a person kills another person the killer will be entitled to a section 745 hearing. These are good murderers, according to the Minister of Justice's understanding. However, serial killers are not entitled to a section 745 review because according to the justice minister's understanding, these are bad murderers.
It is truly unbelievable that the minister has actually quantified human life in this legislation. He actually sets himself up as the one who can quantify whether one killing is worse than two killings. It is unbelievable.
According to this bill, a murderer should be given a glimmer of hope if they kill only one person, but killing more than one person prevents a murderer from getting a review and serving something less than the 25 year imprisonment.
The minister has set the quota at one life. It is reprehensible that this Liberal minister would sit down and draft his very own category of murderers, some deserving of leniency and some not. I submit that one life is as important as two, three or four. If the minister wanted to differentiate between murderers he should have introduced consecutive sentencing. That is the way to deal with this problem. It would ensure that serial killers like Clifford Olson would never have a chance for parole.
Canadians want to have the criminal justice overhauled. Canadians want the government to stand up for victims instead of standing up for criminals. It is time for the abolition of section 745. The Liberals should be ashamed that they have not repealed this section. They should be ashamed that they have ignored the views of millions of Canadians, in particular the views of victims' rights groups.
I cannot support this bill. My constituents cannot support this bill. My party cannot support this bill. We stand here today speaking for Canadians and standing up for the rights of victims and their families.