Mr. Speaker, it was interesting to listen to the debate this morning. It upset me to hear some of the comments from government members. They do not seem to understand the concern of Canadians. I have heard the excuses. I have heard the comments that it is not a court situation, that it is a semi-judicial body. To an extent they are right. The public complaints commission is a semi-judicial body with commissioners that has been set up to find out whether there is any merit in the complaint.
The government has used the excuse that it is an informal process. The question from the opposition side has been that if it is an informal process then why does the government need to have its lawyers there. If the government has decided that it requires legal advice and legal presence at the commission, how can it possibly justify not having the students represented by lawyers to make sure that their representation is given a fair hearing?
I have heard comments that students are not being charged with anything. Neither is the RCMP at this time. The commission is not mandated to sanction or impose penalties. That is not the commission's role.
If the commission finds that perhaps there is basis for the students' complaint and if the RCMP decides to take it one step further and discipline members of the RCMP, there will be a separate hearing, a separate process, at which time they will have legal counsel. However, if the process is strictly an informal one, there is no justification for the government to bring on its lawyers.
Another issue I would like to raise is the question of fairness. I have heard from constituents. One of them is a colleague of the member for Vancouver Quadra. Some of them do not necessarily agree with the students' protest. They do not necessarily agree with the manner in which it was held, but they feel that the public commission process must be fair. Even if they do not agree with the students in their initial protest, they do agree that if lawyers are there for the government side, paid by taxpayers, there should be lawyers there for the students, also paid by taxpayers.
Why? It is not because they agree with the issue or with the students' position but because they believe in the Canadian democratic society there is the question of fairness and equality. If it is fair for the government to have taxpayer funded lawyers then it is also fair for the students to have the same consideration.
I wonder how government members would feel if, Mr. Speaker, you decided that one day only the opposition would be allowed to debate a bill and that the government would not be heard. I wonder how they would feel if only one side of the issue was given the ability to represent one side of the story. I am sure they would not feel that was a fair and proper representation of democracy.
Canadians expect that in a public complaints commission both sides will have equal opportunity to present their positions so that a non-biased group can make a decision based on the information put before it. No Canadian feels that in this case it is an equal playing field.
Let me just share with the House and with Canadians who happen to be watching who supports taxpayer funding for the students, who feels that this is not a level playing field and is not fair.
The public complaints commission feels that the students should have some funding from the government. All opposition parties in the House feel that the students are justified in having some support. Citizens from coast to coast, even though they are not part of the whole APEC scene that happened in Vancouver, feel that the students should have some legal representation paid by the taxpayer. Last but not least, the B.C. wing of the Liberal Party of Canada voted at its weekend meeting for the government to provide funds. Even federal Liberal members in British Columbia feel that it is not fair.
It would appear to me that the only people who do not seem to recognize the unfairness of students trying to represent themselves when the government has overloaded itself with lawyers are the Liberal members who sit on the other side of the House. There will be an opportunity later this afternoon for government members to do the right thing, to recognize that Canada is a great democracy simply because we recognize the freedom of our citizens to express themselves publicly. The government does not have control to the extent that some dictatorships have over their people. Canada is not a Tiananmen Square type of government.
Sometimes we on this side of the House wonder in what direction the government is taking our country. As I was saying, at the end of this afternoon government members will have an opportunity to do the right thing and to support Canadian democracy. They will have an opportunity to say that we need to make sure we protect democracy by maintaining a level playing field and by giving both sides of the debate equal opportunity to represent their sides of the question.
I hope they will do the right thing and will support the request through the motion to provide legal funds for the students so that they have the same opportunity as the government members, the Prime Minister's Office and the RCMP to present their side of this debate in a fair and equitable manner.