Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his fine intervention and for bringing his expertise to the House today on this important bill.
He is a former RCMP officer. I am sure he has a lot of experience with arresting individuals, sending them to court, going through the legal process and then finding out that some members of the judicial community rather than interpreting the laws, have decided to make the laws. They have set precedents in a number of areas which have made it very difficult for the police officers to do their job.
In fact they have turned the judicial system to some extent on its head. That is not what they were there for in the first place. The role of the judiciary is to interpret the laws made by the House of Commons and we as the representatives of the people have that duty.
I would like to know from my hon. colleague in his experience whether he agrees with that assessment. Does he agree that the judiciary rather than interpreting the laws is making the laws? Does the hon. member see that the House can play a role in trying to turn that around? I would also like him to address the issue of accountability.
There has been a number of egregious statements made by judges. They have put forth penalties that seemed completely out of proportion to the offence committed. In the last few years particularly there have been rape cases where individuals basically got off scot-free for committing some heinous crimes. I would like my hon. colleague who has experience in these matters to address these two issues.