Madam Speaker, it gives me pleasure to enter the debate on this motion.
Canada has always respected the basic fundamentals of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. I do not think there is any other country in the world that is more widely regarded as Canada in promoting these values not only within our country but throughout the world.
On behalf of this side of the House, we continue to cherish those basic fundamental freedoms and continue to ensure that they exist within our country.
It is an unusual debate today. I am sure those people with us today will wonder why with the problems of the nation, finance, poverty and other things, we have been able to spend so much time on one conference which occurred in Vancouver almost a year ago. When all the smoke has cleared, what is the damage that has been done? The damage appears to be no broken bones, nobody in the hospital, nobody incarcerated. The damage seems to be some hurt feelings.
What is the process? The process is the public complaints commission which was set up by a previous government basically to review the action of a police force. That, as I understand the complaints procedure, is just that. A person can be a complainant and appear before the commissioner. The commissioner has significant resources to carry out his duties of examining the complainant's claims. There has never been any provision to provide legal fees for complainants.
What we are talking about today is creating a precedent we will have to live with. The next time someone has a demonstration and they feel they were not properly taken care of or perhaps were insulted or someone stepped on their foot or something, they will be able not only to go before a complaints commission but to have access to legal advice and legal representation.
The way members are talking in this House, one would think we were all there. Everyone seems to have a definition of exactly what happened. I was not there and I am willing to say that is why we have a complaints commission examining what happened. Why do we not allow the commission to do its job, which it is well paid to do? I note that the government has provided additional funding over and above its regular funding of $650,000.
In other words, we already have this incident in Vancouver costing up to a million dollars to the taxpayers and the opposition now is asking for more money that essentially will delay and continue this process for no one knows how long, an open ended situation. Just give us more money. The more money we get, the more complainants we will get. How long does it go on? What precedents are we setting for other similar incidents?