Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the legislation. I also support it because I believe some steps are being taken here that need to be taken. It is a good start but I do not think that is where it should stop.
The purpose of the bill is “to empower customs officers with the authority of a peace officer, in particular to arrest without warrant individuals who are wanted on criminal warrants or who are suspected of impaired driving”. The first thing that crosses my mind is that I know police officers have the power to arrest people who are wanted by the criminal courts for certain reasons. When they arrest them, police officers are pretty well protected. They carry guns and have clubs and other equipment that assists them in doing that. I do not see anywhere in the legislation where we are doing much in that direction.
If we are to empower customs officers with the ability to arrest without warrant criminals who are wanted, we should certainly see to it that they in turn will be likewise protected. To some extent this is true with respect to arresting people who are suspected of impaired driving.
You have been around for a few years, Mr. Speaker, and so have I. I do not know if you have ever had the opportunity try to persuade someone not to drive after drinking. Occasionally—and this happened to me a couple of times—some people take objection to that kind of persuasion. It can get just a bit debatable between the two people. If a customs officer tries to remove an individual from his vehicle because he is intoxicated, to prevent him from driving, he should be prepared for all situations. I am not sure the bill allows for that.
I reiterate what was stated by the member for Peace River with regard to the Feeney case. I am pleased to see the government is empowering some officers at the customs level. I would like to see a little more empowering at the police level.
I have driven around, as have many of my colleagues from all sides of the House, in the back seats of police patrol cars observing what is happening, what the action is out there. I found on many occasions that the abuse toward police is remarkable in the sense that they have no way to retaliate. There is nothing they can do about it. They have to take the verbal abuse and give in to certain things. When they finally make an arrest they have to make sure they have witnesses to make certain they do not get into any trouble. They have to make the arrest, make sure all the i 's are dotted and all the t 's are crossed. If they do anything wrong they are in for it quickly.
We need to empower our law enforcement people to a greater degree so they can better do their job. It seems the government is adamant about making sure the rights of the criminal far exceed the rights of arresting officers and the rights of law-abiding people. It is becoming more and more obvious. I hope the government will address those issues some time.
I am concerned about some of the things that happen at the borders in terms of treatment of normal travellers. Many MPs have likely received some of the same complaints that I have received concerning the way travellers have been treated on their return to Canada.
There have been complaints of rudeness and a lack of consideration of the fact that they are visitors returning to Canada. It may be a married couple returning from a vacation or whatever the case might be. Many times its gets a bit out of hand. I do not think Wild Rose people are much different from those anywhere else in Canada. They like to be treated fairly and with courtesy at border crossings upon their to return to Canada, which they deserve. Sometimes that does not happen so I would caution on that.
Some time in the future I will bring the following incident to the attention of the minister. The national rodeo championships are held every year in Las Vegas. This year we sent a good contingency of cowboys from the west and some from the east to compete. When they arrived there they received very nice jackets from the organizing committee to signify their status as national rodeo representatives. They were awarded the jackets in honour of their presence at the event as Canadian ambassadors.
On one occasion one of the cowboys who was wearing his jacket was crossing the border into Alberta. He was ostracized a great deal because he did not claim the jacket on his declaration. It had actually slipped his mind that he had obtained the coat. The customs officials went further and charged him a great amount of duty on the jacket that was given to him as a representative of Canada. That is wrong. We need to see what went on there and do something about it.
I do not think politicians, including the prime minister, who have visited other parts of the world have not received some sort of gift. I am sure they did not have to claim them or pay duty on them. Even you, Mr. Speaker. I am quite positive you do not have to pay duty on any gifts you receive when you are on official business as a member of Parliament. At any rate I would like that checked into.
Sooner than later one thing will hit the floor of the House of Commons. I believe it has to be sooner. There is a document that interferes a great deal. It is a real stumbling block to people who want to do a good job at border crossings, to people who want to do a good job of protecting society, and to front line prison guards who are working for the benefit of all of us.
That document is the charter of rights and freedoms. It is forever throwing up a road block to prevent them from doing the kind of job they would like to do. Someday that document will have to be brought into the House of Commons to be scrutinized by members to see if there is anything we can do to legislation which prevents peace officers of all kinds from doing the kind of work they want to do.