Mr. Speaker, I would like to add a few words of what I hope will be considered common sense to the debate. The bill which my hon. colleague has put forward has a lot of common sense at a very elementary level.
The bill simply deals with refusing to allow a person re-entry who has been already illegally evicted from a premise. Let us stop to think about it from a very practical point of view. There is not a merchant in the country who will kick his customers out if the customers are good for business. It also makes a lot of sense to consider if he or she is encountering interference by people on the premises who are preventing other people from coming in or even making them uncomfortable because of their antics. If there is adequate reason to remove that person lawfully, which is the first part of the bill, why should there not also be a simple provision that says the person may not come back? Perhaps 24 hours is not enough.
That is what the motion is stating. A person can be kicked out of a place, walk right back in, do the same thing, be kicked back out, come back in, do the same thing and on it goes. There is no remedy to that situation. It can be repeated over and over.
My hon. colleague is simply saying that we should give that individual a chance to stop and think about it and give the involved security people or the police staff the opportunity to say to the person: "You are out of here for 24 hours. Stop to think about what you are doing. Maybe you will correct yourself".
At the time of the initial eviction, especially with young people, very often there is a little element of peer pressure. They just want to prove a point and maybe have a bit of fun. That would break this up and solve the problem. We in the Reform Party are very interested in preserving the rights of law-abiding citizens.
In this instance we are taking people who are pushing to the limit the rights and the privileges of others. We are saying that for a short time their right to enter the premise will be suspended. It is just a very gentle way of correcting them instead of digging them into a big hole.
There is always the debate on whether this is a provincial matter. We have heard that a lot this week in the debates on justice issues. I suppose one could argue that almost everything is provincial in the sense that almost everything is given in the Criminal Code to the provinces to administer. There is a national Criminal Code, the Criminal Code of Canada. Within that code are these articles of trespass and other provisions. Why not strengthen it so that it could be made to work more smoothly?
One of the last things I would like to see happen is our security people or those working on police forces wasting their time frivolously putting people out and allowing them back in because they have to under the present provisions without there being a remedy.
Now it is suggested that every municipality could have a regulation in this regard. Why should we ask the thousands of municipalities to deal with the issue and to include it in their own provisions? That would result in a lack of uniformity and an inefficiency in terms of the use of legislators' time when we could have a national law in the form of a change to our national provisions which would solve the problem?
In conclusion, it is unfortunate the way this place works. The member from the Bloc who spoke said: "I and the members of my party will not be supporting this provision". In other words he is the justice critic. He comes in here. He looks at it and says: "That is the end of it. Our guys will not be supporting it".
The parliamentary secretary already made the decision on behalf of the Liberal Party. This is a private member's bill. Of course we have free votes. Instead of a carte blanche that says we will not support it and thereby have everybody jump into line, perhaps it would be better if the leaders in their respective caucuses would challenge their people to think about the matter and to make their decision individually.
They should talk to the people in their ridings as my hon. colleague has done. His motion is a direct result of representations to him by people involved in these kinds of things. He has talked to the police who actually have a suboffice in the shopping mall. They have a problem where their time is being wasted by having to repeatedly put people out. They have no legal provision to tell them not to come back.
That is all that is being asked here. It makes a great deal of common sense. As I said in the beginning, it is perhaps a little too elementary for members opposite to realize, but I plead with them to consider the matter carefully. Let us allow the legislative process and the Liberal red book commitment to more free votes to apply. Let us deal with the issue rather than simply have one person say: "We will not support it because it is a Reform motion" or for whatever other reason.
I am thankful for the opportunity to participate. I hope I have added value to the debate this evening.