Mr. Speaker, the Bloc has proposed that Bill C-45 be hoisted for six months. I think that is a splendid idea. I would like to see the bill hoisted indefinitely, if not forever. Then maybe the justice committee would have time for a little sober second thought and could allow this House to pass judgment on the private member's bill of the member for York South-Weston. However, we know that is not going to happen because the juggernaut is rolling.
Bill C-45 is typical of our justice minister's philosophy which values the rights of criminals far more than the rights of law-abiding, taxpaying, decent citizens. This philosophy does not just show up in Bill C-45. There is a pattern. For example, look at Bill C-68 which my colleague from Lethbridge has already touched on. In his bill the justice minister has expressed a willingness, an eagerness to harass and persecute millions of honest people in order to promote his social agenda.
Now he has a new thing coming forward, Bill C-55. Ostensibly it is to apply more restraint to dangerous offenders and to have to some limited extent more control over people who society would not countenance. I will admit it is a faltering little step in the right direction. But in this same bill there is provision for the surveillance and control of people who have never been convicted or even openly accused of a crime. What in the name of heaven ever happened to due process?
Liberals are always great on due process. To be entitled to it a person first has to commit a serious crime, preferably a really vicious premeditated murder and then the Liberals will love them to death. Then our justice system will pull out all the stops to protect their rights. But if the person is an ordinary citizen who has never done anything to offend anybody, look out. Our justice minister will have something in store for him, something which flies in the face of all traditional concepts of British and later of Canadian jurisprudence.
Some people say that it does not help to keep people locked up. The hon. member for Kingston and the Islands probably has something to say about that. He has a lot to say about everything else. I just wonder how the people in his riding would feel about his views about just getting rid of the prisons and throwing the prisoners out on the street, that they are good folks and we have got to be nice to them and we should not be mean to criminals.
Does it help to keep people locked up? I will say one thing, it sure cuts down on recidivism. They do not commit a lot of crimes when they are already incarcerated.
The government calls section 745 the faint hope clause. The word on the street is that it is not the faint hope clause; it is the almost a sure thing clause. To date, although we have only been really using it for two years, 80 per cent of the people who have applied for the right to appeal for a reduced sentence have been granted that right. What kind of a faint hope are we talking about?
The other part of this bill which I find extraordinarily offensive and which many people have already mentioned is that it establishes a difference between good murderers and bad murderers. A person who kills only one person is a good person and is not really bad and therefore should not be terribly punished. If someone kills two, look out. What happens if three people kill two people? What do we do with someone who is guilty of one and a half murders?
With respect to good murderers and bad murderers, there is one Joseph Robinson who about 10 days ago was convicted of second degree murder. Perhaps the House will say I am digressing here by bringing forward a second degree murder but give me a little patience and I will explain where I am coming from.
Normally the penalty for second degree murder is life, ten. This gentleman was deemed to have been motivated by racism. It was a hate crime. His term for parole eligibility was increased by two and a half years. I have no trouble with the tougher sentence. As a matter of fact, in view of the crime that this gentleman was convicted of, I would not have trouble with a much tougher sentence. It was an extremely brutal crime and the extra time was probably warranted, but hardly the rationale.
However, if you shoot a police officer for sport, and there are two well documented cases of this that I am aware of, you have the right after 15 years to come forward and ask to have your parole eligibility reconsidered. As was mentioned in this House earlier today, one person who did just that had his parole period cut down to 18 years. He did shoot a policeman for sport.
Where in the name of common sense and rationale is the justice in that? We are making a mockery of our justice system. Nobody on this side, and I do not think anybody in Canada, is saying hang them high, hang them often, throw the key away. For heaven's sake, can we not reintroduce a bit of common sense into a system that has completely gone off the rails? This is where I come from, this is where my colleagues come from, this is where the general public of Canada is coming from. They are sick and tired of seeing
these miscarriages of justice perpetrated by our very own justice system.