Madam Speaker, I always think it is disgraceful that an institution such as the Parliament of Canada-I am unable to begin for the noise. I was saying that I always think it is disgraceful to hear insults, comments on both sides of the House, and I think it is one of the reasons the Canadian public has lost confidence in Parliament as an institution and in politicians.
When we hear comments such as those we have just heard, when insults are hurled back and forth, this affects Parliament's credibility. We should be able to respect our differences. That is all I wanted to say, that it bothers me. When I was elected in 1993, I had a great deal of respect for the institution, and I still do. I believe in it, and I do not feel that comments such as those we have just heard will do anything to increase its prestige.
I am pleased to speak to Bill C-45, which deals with changes to section 745 of the Criminal Code. First of all, I think it would be appropriate to tell this House and our viewers just what section 745 contains.
Sometimes we tend to speak a sort of insider's jargon. We speak of "745, paragraph 1, paragraph 2" and so on, and therein perhaps lies the problem of legal language. These are discussions between people in the know, and the ordinary people listening to us need to know what this section is all about.
Before I read the section, just to put us in context, people need to know that the government tabled Bill C-45 right at the end of the session, June 11 to be precise. One of the reasons for so doing was to prevent British Columbia serial killer Clifford Olson from making an application under section 745 of the Criminal Code during the summer of 1996. As the section stood, he became eligible to apply for parole on August 12, 1996.
I must make it clear immediately that this bill, pushed through at full speed by the Liberal government, by the federal Minister of Justice, is somewhat reactionary, along the lines of the right wing approach of the Reform Party. By adopting a Reform-style program with all possible haste, the Liberal government wished to show that it was looking out for victims and for victims' rights, that criminals ought to remain in prison, and so forth. I must point out, right from the start, that the party to which I belong feels, as has been stated already in prior speeches by my hon. colleague from Bellechasse, that the interests of victims must come first.
However, in Canada there are certain principles of natural justice that must be respected, which is what I intend to demonstrate in the next few minutes. I may point out that the first paragraph of section 745 of the Criminal Code provides, and I quote:
(1) Where a person has served at least fifteen years of his sentence
(a) in the case of a person who has been convicted of high treason or first degree murder, or
(b) in the case of a person convicted of second degree murder [-]he may apply to the appropriate Chief Justice in the province in which the conviction took place for a reduction in his number of years of imprisonment without eligibility for parole.
The same section also says that on receipt of an application under subsection (1), the appropriate Chief Justice shall designate a judge of the superior court to empanel a competent jury that will determine, and this is the important part of paragraph (2) of section 745, "whether the applicant's number of years of imprisonment without eligibility for parole ought to be reduced having regard to the character of the applicant, his conduct while serving his sentence, the nature of the offence for which he was convicted and such other matters as the judge deems relevant in the circumstances."
So, very briefly, this section provides, as also specified in paragraph (4), that the jury, in full possession of the facts, may reduce or eliminate altogether the number of years. So it does have certain powers.
It should be clear before we go any further that, if we take the Clifford Olson case, a jury in full possession of the facts would never authorize the release of Clifford Olson, and that should the National Parole Board receive an application, its reply would be negative.
We must see this section in context. The section was introduced in 1976 by the Trudeau government, when capital punishment was abolished. This measure was introduced at the very end of the debate to ensure a majority in Parliament for the abolition of capital punishment. Twenty years ago, this section represented a kind of security for supporters of capital punishment. The government could say: "This does not mean that after a certain time, we will automatically release dangerous criminals or serial killers, and so forth".
Again, I agree with the comments made by my colleague, the hon. member for Chambly, who said earlier that this was not a question of mathematics, with different sets of criteria depending on whether two, four or ten murders were committed. These are
totally subjective criteria. Still there must be a common thread, some uniformity in dealing with this or that type of murder, whether it is murder in the first degree or murder in the second degree.
As far as the Bloc Quebecois' position is concerned, we must point out that our party is not against reviewing section 745. After 20 years, I think this section needs to be updated. Legislative review is normal process in the Quebec and Canadian society. We do not do things in 1996 as we did in 1976. Our values, as a society, may have changed. In saying this I am trying not to pass judgment on today's values, but the fact remains that we do not have today the same values as we did in 1976 or in the 1950s.
Again, I am not passing a qualitative judgment on today's values. We know that, as a society, we still have a some way to go in terms of values. It was therefore normal to review section 745.
On the other hand, as I mentioned earlier, just days before the summer recess, the Minister of Justice brought in what we consider an important amendment to the Criminal Code.
It is our party's opinion that Bill C-45 would have deserved, and still deserves, thorough and careful consideration, instead of being rushed through for emotional reasons in reaction to a Reform Party agenda item and that the Liberal government should act differently.
The Minister of Justice maintains that section 745 should not be repealed, as requested by the Reform Party, because he believes in the rehabilitation potential of inmates. But the proposed amendments restrict the judicial review process to such an extent that, while it still exists in theory, the provision is all but inoperative.
So, he is not prepared to repeal the section, as requested by the Reform Party, but he makes its application so difficult that it does not mean anything any more. That is what the people on Ile d'Orléans, around Beaupré, call talking out of both sides of one's mouth.
Madam Speaker, you have indicated to me that I have only a minute and a half left, so I will have to skip certain parts of my presentation.
I do wish to state, however, that we consider this amendment to section 745 to have been badly presented, badly managed by the Liberal government. As a party, we are well aware of the pain and suffering experienced by victims' families in seeing the person who murdered their loved one resurfacing in the court process. For this reason, as a party, we feel that the Criminal Code ought to contain clauses to ensure that the families of victims are not forgotten.
This is the problem with our legal system, we are strong on inmate rights, and so forth, but often tend to forget victims and victims' families. If the victim has had the misfortune to lose his life, his survivors must bear the burden of their suffering for years. We ought to keep victims' families firmly in mind.
We ought therefore to make sure that victims' families are given a hearing, if they wish one, during the review process. Another bill, Bill C-41, requires judges to consider victims' or victims' families' testimony as part of the evidence, and this is a very good thing.
In conclusion, we feel that section 745 ought to be examined far more thoroughly, possibly with public consultation. Statistics on the use of judiciary review and the very low percentage of repeat offenders among released criminals warrant far more extensive and far more serious attention.
An important section of our Criminal Code cannot be modified in a rush, at the end of a parliamentary session, by getting around the usual rules of parliamentary debate. The Minister of Justice cannot change the basic principles of criminal law in Canada because he is carried away by emotion, or for political expediency.