Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my hon. colleague from Calgary.
When he was elected, he was an acting police officer. My concern about this bill-we are supporting the bill-is that we are creating the impression that it will do something about the child sex tours to other countries and that, through this legislation, we will create a penalty for a pedophile who goes to another country and has sex with children.
My concern is in the area of enforcement and establishing a prima facie case. I want my hon. friend to address his thoughts to this. He, in his former career, as I did a number of years ago, had to put cases together. We needed evidence that gave us reasonable and
probable grounds to believe that an offence had been committed. Based on that, we were allowed to lay an information, a charge. In addition, we needed evidence to support the charge, evidence that, under normal circumstances, would bring about a conviction by the court. He would need a well established case based on solid evidence.
Does he share my concern about the government passing legislation to allow for the successful prosecution of Canadians who travel to another country, commit what would be an offence in Canada over there and come back here? What are the chances of a successful prosecution? What resources would be required in order to establish a successful prosecution? Would the child who was involved in the sex act have to appear and give testimony? If so, how difficult would it be not only to gain the consent of the child but also to bring her here? Does he see anything in the bill where the child would not have to appear here? Is there written testimony, an affidavit that could be sworn that could be admissible in court? He may not want to touch on some of these areas but I have great concern that part of the bill will be unenforceable.