Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to present a petition, pursuant to Standing Order 36, containing well over 12,000 signatures. All the petitioners are from the Kamloops constituency.
They call upon the government to do away with section 745 of the Criminal Code, the section which in a sense does not mean that a life sentence is a life sentence. It means it is only a shortened sentence and it allows criminals like Clifford Olson and so on to make appeals. Thousands of people from my constituency are saying that this does not seem right at all and should be repealed.
I have another petition that has to do with section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. That is the section that permits people to violently beat their children. I suppose we could put it that way.
The petitioners feel that it is not right for parents to inflict physical pain on children at young ages. When they are determining their values and the basic morals of society it is not right for parents to inflict pain on children for disciplinary purposes and goes against the spirit of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are asking for a repeal of section 43.