Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the bill. I may be found in contempt if the parliamentary secretary to the justice minister has her way in the idea that I intend to raise some bills that have been passed previously. Bill C-4, the wheat board bill, comes to mind and whatnot.
The legislative rules on property rights do not necessarily protect the individual, which should surely be the intent of a bill of rights. The intent should be to protect individuals from legislative abuse by governments of the day. That is what property rights and a bill of rights are all about. Governments change from time to time and the protection of the individual is paramount.
We can see this with regard to Canadian farmers who are still being thrown in jail for selling their own grain. That is probably a breach of their property rights. It is certainly agreed upon out west where this is being done. The current rules in the legislation certainly did not protect the province's constitutional authority over property two weeks ago in Edmonton when four provinces and two territories argued that the Firearms Act infringed on their property rights and the rights of individuals. The bill of rights and the charter certainly do not protect the provinces. Here again it seems to be the government of the day.
I will point out specifically so that everyone is very clear what Bill C-304 is about. The member for Yorkton—Melville said it clearly before but I will reiterate. Property rights are natural, fundamental, and based on hundreds of years of common law.
The government intentionally left property rights out of the charter in 1982. This was to the detriment of each person's democratic rights and economic freedoms. The bill would put forward amendments that would specifically guarantee all people have the right to the enjoyment of their property; the right not to be deprived of their property unless they are given a fair hearing; the right to be paid fair, timely and impartial compensation; and the right to appeal to the courts if their property rights have been infringed upon or denied. Every person's property rights would be guaranteed in law in Canada unless it is expressly declared that the act shall operate notwithstanding the Canadian bill of rights. That should clarify precisely what Bill C-304 is about. Those are the words of the member who proposed the bill.
I am concerned about the inconsistency between the government's position on human rights outside Canada and its position at home. We recently saw an active demonstration of this at the APEC summit in Vancouver.
Also in Canada we continue to have a lack of accountability concerning basic human rights in our First Nations. This is related in part to the lack of a fully democratic institution that provides checks and balances between constituents and elected chiefs and councils. For example, there is no effective access to information legislation and labour legislation to protect a reserve employee from arbitrary dismissal from a position. These are basic democratic rights. They involve property rights. These are things that all Canadians should be entitled to in this country.
I speak in support of Bill C-304. This bill would begin to correct the inconsistencies between international human rights and practices at home.
Before we can ask for protection of property rights we must define property ownership rights. Quite simply, I would define property ownership as the right to transfer property, the right to control how a property is used, the responsibility for the benefits and the costs associated with the property, and the right to compensation when property is taken by governments.
This is not a long definition. The vast majority of people likely assume that when they own something they have these three simple rights. Sadly, this is not the case. I only have to look at grain farmers in western Canada, which is probably the biggest example at the current time, to see that all Canadians do not have these rights. Farmers produce wheat and barley, but they do not have the right to transfer their property. They are obligated by law to sell their produce to the Canadian Wheat Board. It gets down to the very basics of human existence when someone produces food and wants to trade with another person or another country and they are not allowed to do so.
Similarly, producers of wheat and barley in western Canada do not have control over their property. They must deliver their produce to the Canadian Wheat Board when the Canadian Wheat Board tells them to deliver. Most Canadians believe that they have the right to accept higher risk in exchange for the possibility of higher returns. This basic principle of a free democratic economy is practised every day on the nation's stock exchanges in commodities.
This bill is a move in the right direction toward protecting the property rights of individuals in this country, as well as supporting the very Constitution that protects the rights of provinces to the property which is under their control.