Mr. Speaker, I was interested in the comments of my colleague from Fraser Valley West. Certainly of all the members of this House, not just of this party but of this House, he has done more to bring the issue of victims and victim rights to the attention of the Canadian public than any other member possibly in the last 25 years. I commend him for that.
It is really interesting to note that in addition to Bill C-46, by the Minister of Justice, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the production of records on sexual offence proceedings, on today's Order Paper the Minister of Justice also has Bill C-27, an act to amend the Criminal Code, child prostitution, child sex tourism, criminal harassment and female genital mutilation, and Bill C-55, an act to amend the Criminal Code, high risk offenders, the
Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Criminal Records Act, the Prisons and Reformatories Act and the Department of the Solicitor General Act.
It is particularly interesting, looking at Bill C-27 and Bill C-55 which cover so many topics under the Criminal Code, to note how they are really omnibus kinds of bills. What does this indicate? Very clearly this indicates that we are coming up to, of all things, an election. What the justice minister is trying to do in this particular case is clear the deck. What he has done with Bill C-27 and Bill C-55 is make an omnibus collection of a whole bunch of detail that he could have taken care of and should have taken care of over the last three and a half years.
However, what does he do? He pulls them in at the last minute, at the 11th hour, the witching hour of the election. Therefore when I take a look at Bill C-46 and the fact that the justice minister is finally getting around to this bill and I take a look at the fact, as the member for Fraser Valley West has pointed out, that a member's motion about bringing in a victims bill of rights has just been languishing, I ask myself are these amendments to the Criminal Code under Bill C-46, Bill C-27 and Bill C-55 actually more important than the member's motion that came before the House to give victims in Canada a bill of rights, to give victims in Canada an opportunity to have some say in the courts, to give victims in Canada some standing in the justice process.
It is very clear in my mind that what the minister is doing, with massive cynicism, is a clean-up at the very last minute.
I wonder if I could ask the member for Fraser Valley West for his opinion. It seems to me the justice minister has had a clear track to do these things. It seems to me that the justice minister has had opportunity after opportunity to do something on the victims bill of rights and in spite of the fact that there is an election coming he still is not doing anything on the victims bill of rights.
He has taken the time to do his house cleaning and sweeping and getting it all together at the last minute on these other things. I wonder if the member would like to express an opinion. It defies logic why the justice minister did not move long ago on his motion for a victims bill of rights.