Mr. Speaker, this is going to be tough with the Liberals here trying to shake me loose.
There are two issues here for those of us who do not know a lot about wheat farming, indeed who do not know much about farming at all in this country and there are many who do not. The first issue is one of democracy and how democracy works in this country and the second issue is of law and order. I want to speak briefly on both of those. I do not think I will take up the 15 minutes but one never knows. Perhaps I will give the House leader of the government five minutes to sum up his side.
The issue of time allocation in a democracy is one which one could consider takes a lot away from our democracy today and it does. Time allocation or closure is about the right of an individual to speak in the House of Commons. It is about the rights of individuals to hear in the House of Commons not just from one party but from all parties.
This case, Bill C-4 referring to the wheat board, is an issue we think everybody, whether they are farmers, whether they live in the city or wherever they live in this country, should be able to hear about it. It is an issue of the right to speak for others.
We have farmers in our caucus and probably there are farmers in all the caucuses here. Some of my colleagues are wheat farmers. I think where they come from this is about the right to speak for the farmers in their areas who are concerned about Bill C-4 and about a monopoly of the wheat board. This bill is really about the rights of farmers.
The government is again calling for time allocation or closure on an important bill. This has only been done twice I believe in this 36th Parliament, the other being on the Canada pension plan bill, another major issue in this country. Minor bill after minor bill comes through this House and we seem to find the time to be able to debate those. But when an important issue comes up, what the government does in effect is it restricts the right to speak out, it restricts the right of people to hear, it restricts the right to speak for others.
And it has certainly restricted the rights of farmers across this nation. I guess I can understand why there are no elected Liberals on the prairies because that is the feeling a farmer would get: Where am I best represented? The results of elections are obvious.
Members are now rating me. At least I got a one and someone gave me a one and a half. When you rate somebody in this country you have to have some standards upon which to rate.
When we are talking about standards and rating that is exactly what the farmers do. If we had the farmers rating who in this House best represented them, we would see a 10 on this side and perhaps one-half a point on that side.
I want to talk about the second issue in this House as a non-farmer, as an individual who depends on his colleagues for comments about the true effect of Bill C-4. I want to talk about law and order.
There is something dreadfully wrong in this country when we put our farmers in jail for trying to sell their product and at the same time I find myself fighting day and night to put bad guys, real criminals in jail and find very little success at it.
I know there are rules that are given to farmers for selling their product, but must the first option be to put a farmer in prison because he does not live by a rule, that he wants to sell his product, that he wants to be productive? Must that be the Liberal way?
I want to draw an analogy here. For the Liberals who do not know what an analogy is, I am going to draw a comparison, something similar.
In my community a fellow by the name of Darren Ursel raped a young lady. He went to court. The judge said “Well, it is your first time and you said you were sorry. Well, I guess you will not do it again. You do feel remorseful. And you were tender at times”. He gave this fellow a conditional sentence, no time in jail.
I really wonder what the wheat farmers across this country are thinking when they compare that to what happens when one of their own ends up in prison for trying to convince the government here that there is another way to sell wheat. I just cannot imagine how a farmer ends up in prison and a rapist ends up walking the street. For a person like me who is not a farmer, I look at it and I say there is something dreadfully wrong in this country.
There are two Reform members who are not here today, who are out once again in court fighting for the rights of farmers. I think it would be wise for members on the opposite side to get out there a little bit, get into these communities in the prairies. I know they will not get elected in the prairies, but it is not bad to show up once in a while.
It would be a good idea to go out there and listen to what happens in these court cases. I am absolutely certain that members opposite would come back into this House and say the same as we are saying. Listen to what is happening in this country. They are throwing farmers in prison while they are leaving rapists on the street. That says very little for a government.
This bill continues a monopoly that has existed for some time. We will get outvoted in this House of Commons because there is a majority government. It is a fact that the only time farmers will get a restriction of a monopoly, get to act the way they want to act, get to live the way they want to live, get justice the way they want justice is to wait until we upset the Liberal government in an election.
For those farmers out there we know why we get their support. It has been three days straight here that farmers, like the gentleman behind me, have been fighting day and night in debate to try to get things changed, while those on the opposite side insist that the letter of the law is more important than the right of a farmer. That is wrong. It is very wrong.