Mr. Speaker, you know the respect that I hold for all members of the House, members of the opposition. It is one of the strong points in our parliamentary system that we live and work in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Members will allow me then to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the glorious revolution of 1968 that brought Pierre Trudeau to power by citing one of his best aphorisms. He was referring to Lord Acton that power corrupts. He then said “but absence of power corrupts absolutely”. He was using this as a way of distinguishing the different roles of government and opposition MPs. It is the duty of the opposition to attack a government. It is the duty of the government to seek solutions. It sometimes means in the pursuit of the opposition role that we get some very strange combinations.
I am reminded of a reverse image of the biblical gathering at the cave of the Adullamites, a strange collection that brings together all four opposition parties in spite of the disparateness of their ideology, and one might even say their personalities and their conception of life. But there it is, an unholy alliance is there. I do not denigrate the motives or the contributions made by opposition members. I would simply say to three of the opposition parties, welcome aboard.
It is true the NDP raised this issue on November 25. I thought I was the first; I raised it on December 1, 1997, but I am happy to have the correction. It seems to me the other three opposition parties joined in only a few weeks ago, which is an interesting fact.
Mr. Speaker, I neglected to say that I am sharing my time with the hon. member for Mississauga West, a very honourable member.
To get on to this issue, the role of government MPs is basically an issue of problem solving and producing solutions. I have had certain experience in this area. Sometimes in Canadian politics the problem solving role appears to be more difficult and complex than it was in negotiating with the Russians during the cold war. But there it is. We have interesting and diverse personalities. Our role has always been to make sure that the issues involved which I saw on television in the APEC meeting at UBC are debated fully, that the constitutional issues and the possible collision of constitutional values are properly heard.
There is in fact a certain antinomy. The 1973 treaty on protection of visiting heads of government codifies customary international law. It is the fourth in a series of anti-terrorism treaties, in respect to two earlier ones of which I was the chairman rapporteur of an international commission that did the drafting. But there is also the matter of the charter of rights, the right to free speech, which includes the right even of objection to visiting foreign dignitaries. How to make the balance is what we have been referring to.
In my first communication with the solicitor general I urged the convening of this RCMP complaints commission not because it necessarily is the best of all commissions but it is the one available, it is there. That is the first point. When the issue of the commission being created was established, I raised the funding issue. I have a series of communications which I will deposit in the National Archives. Mr. Speaker, you will be around 30 years from now and will be able to read them with great pleasure and enjoyment. I have maintained that point.
Let me bring us to the events of the last several weeks when the solicitor general advised that in interpreting his office he could not make funds available for individuals appearing before the commission other than the RCMP officers. When the solicitor general raised that issue, I and others began exploring other alternatives.
One of the questions raised was could the commission itself in its discretion use its powers and its funds to fill gaps, lacunae in the legal argumentation. That has taken a good deal of time and a good deal of work and it is an ongoing process. I am able to assure the House that in communications with the government, it has been established that there is the extra supplementary budget, $650,000. It is in the commissioners' discretion to use those funds.
It has been suggested that there are legal objections or obstacles in the way of the commission. One of the issues raised is there is a legal opinion by a professor, there is a ruling by a government agency and there is an opinion by an unnamed government official in the justice ministry. These are not, I would say from my own experience as a royal commissioner, insuperable obstacles. In fact I do not think they are substantial.
I have had the advantage of talking at length with the gentleman referred to earlier in this debate, the hon. Ron Basford who was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. We believe those objections could be overcome.
Basically I think the ball is now in the commissioners' court. It is for them to make the judgment.
I was able to attend one day of the commission's hearings in Vancouver. I myself felt that the role of the commission was more muted than it should have been. Frankly I felt that the commissioners might have interrupted the examination or cross-examination. It seemed to me it got into the very issues I am talking about, the 1973 treaty and the balance with the charter of rights. That is the sort of issue in my judgment in which the commissioners could decide that they need supplemental legal argument and if I were they, I think I would do so.
In other words we are saying that funds are available. There is a discretion there. My own inquiries establish in my mind that there will be no blocking to their initiatives and there will be co-operation in removing legal articles.
In a communication to the government, I had originally suggested that a special supplementary grant be made. I suggested $50,000 to $100,000 which was in no way intended to be a cap. But I am also worried about fees for lawyers. In France at administrative tribunals no one is entitled to a lawyer. That makes it simpler and less expensive. I am assured again that there is not a cap, that in other words it is open to the commission to ask for more funds.
Two of the three commissioners are young and they struck me as decent, honourable people. If they seize the initiative, they can make sure that substantive justice is done to all people involved. This has involved a good deal of work for a number of people on the government side. It is quiet work that gets no headlines. It is not the sort of thing that can turn a phrase in a newspaper editorial but it is part of my responsibility as a government member to exhaust all possibilities.
I place more expectations in the civil litigation pending before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Because of the backlog of court business, there are delays in when that will come to court. It has been the policy of the justice ministry to fund ordinary private litigation where substantive constitutional policy issues arise. Why should the taxpayer not fund private litigants when they carry the burden of making in effect constitutional law? It is constitutional law in motion. In the logic of events, the case for funding of the civil litigation is very clear.
It is often forgotten that the charter of rights rests on what Dicey called the common law rights of Englishmen. Today we would say of Englishmen and Englishwomen. It is also in the American bill of rights. These are decisions of individual courts in individual concrete cases. In Dicey's view the constitution is not the source of the rights but the consequence of the rights as defined in litigation. In civil litigation before the courts, I would have the expectation of a definitive ruling. The case for funding there is very strong. I would be very surprised if it does not occur.
In the meantime with the limited mandate of the commission, my advice to the commissioners is to exercise more control over counsel. They are entitled to. They should also exercise their discretion. If they feel they need more light on the legal issues, fund it and let others set up the legal objections.