The member for Kingston and the Islands seems obsessed with the issue of caning. He asking me once again to talk about caning. I would much prefer to talk about this piece of legislation, as weak as it is, and to talk about Reform's substantial proposals which I will present later.
The programs of temporary absence are an extension of the status quo correctional philosophy. I believe it is important to talk about that philosophy a bit. First, it says that most criminals commit crimes because they are also victims. How many times have we heard that from the members across on the government side and from the separatists in the House? It is an excuse. I am sure that the people who are committing or thinking about committing a crime think that they will always have this excuse to fall back on. This excuse has found its way into our justice system that most criminals commit crimes because they are victims of crime.
Second, this philosophy states that crime is mostly a product of social conditions and that the most effective remedy is for the state to intervene through programs such as a step up in welfare payments, more money handed to these poor people so they do not become criminals. There is absolutely no evidence that this is the case in Canada in particular. This philosophy is flawed from the start. So of course the legislation which flows from Liberal thinkers would be flawed.
I would like to talk a bit about temporary absences. It is another in a long list of language which is used by people who believe in the Liberal philosophy. It is the language which is preferred by welfare state criminologists, which includes conditional release, mandatory supervision, statutory release, community sentencing, alternative measures and other newer labels which are essentially built on the same theme, the same philosophy. They build on the notion that the purpose of imprisonment is rehabilitation.
As we have heard from speakers from the government and the separatist side, the focus is on rehabilitation of the criminals and the rights of the criminals. This is the philosophy that has driven the change of this government. Because of that we get this type of legislation which really is not going to help one bit when it is passed. Again, it will be passed because the Liberals will vote as they are told to vote.
I would like to talk a bit about something else which should find its way into the philosophy of people who are trying to redesign the justice system. That is the deterrent to crime. We need to focus more on deterring crime.
Reform is sympathetic to opponents of the status quo in corrections and parole who argue that substantial crime savings can be made through deterrence rather than programs of temporary release and that type of thing, the changes that are proposed in this bill for example. Reform is very open and I would say that we support that philosophy.
The answer is not to throw people in jail and throw away the key. In some cases a longer sentence and certainty in sentencing is what we need. But in other cases, we need to look at other options.
There are people sitting on the government side who are not even willing to consider other options. We have to look at every possible option that we can find to deter crime. This is not happening on the government side. But all the options are being talked about and considered, for example, boot camps for young offenders. These are the kinds of things we have to discuss.