moved that Bill C-262, an act to amend the Criminal Code (probation order), be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Mr. Speaker, there are times in this Chamber when one realizes the responsibility that we have as members of parliament, indeed the privilege, of being able to come to this place where laws are made in Canada and have direct input such as I have at this point.
The bill I have brought to the attention of the House has arisen from a situation that is not unique in my constituency but which was drawn to my attention in 1996. It is not unique in my constituency that when we have crimes committed the presiding judge has the opportunity, at the time of sentencing when the sentence is two years less a day, to include in the file, indeed in the sentence, terms of probation. In the case of giving a sentence in excess of two years less a day unfortunately that provision does not exist in criminal law.
From time to time governments come forward with omnibus legislation in particular in the area of justice. Omnibus legislation is simply a gathering together of all the bits and pieces of improvements that can be made to Canada's Criminal Code and moving this forward through the House of Commons to clean up a number of details.
There is no way this bill is inspired by any partisan interest whatsoever. This is a bill that I am sure would receive the support of all members of this Chamber. It is a simple piece of fine tuning on existing legislation that would improve Canada's justice system.
I confess I am not a lawyer. In some circles that would be seen as a bonus. However, we will leave that one where it sits. I am a simple layman who went to a lawyer and said what is the improvement that should be made, and it is from that that this legislation flows.
What was the situation? Unfortunately back in 1996 a 34 year old man was convicted of beating his own 28 day old son, a very despicable crime. The judge at the time of sentencing noted this individual had a prior record of doing this kind of thing. It was the judge's contention that if there had been some sort of provision in the sentencing in either the first or second instance the wife of this man, the woman who bore this child, would have been aware that she would have to be more protective of her own child. There would have been the possibility that such a union would not have taken place in the first place
This is a very difficult case. I am not trying to tack on to this sentencing by this judge. I am not trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I am simply saying that the judge was right. This is as good an indicator as any. Judges should have exactly the same opportunity as they have in sentencing two years less a day to affect the outcome and the considerations at the time of probation.
I read from a news report at the time:
At the time of the sentencing the judge criticized the federal laws from preventing him from attaching a probation period to the sentence.
I now hope that [my] proposed legislation will take into account the conditions at the time of sentencing to allow judges to attach probation periods to federal sentences.
It is this kind of fine tuning that allows all hon. members of the House to come to this place and say here is a problem, what can we do to fix it. However, as private members we are thwarted by the system within the House. As I said at the beginning of my address I am very pleased and privileged to have the opportunity to come to the House to make a plea for this change on behalf not only of my own constituents but all Canadians and to improve the justice system. At the same time as a private member I am really constrained as to how far I can take this.
I brought the bill to the House following that instance in 1996. We are already in 1998. This is a two year process. In the intervening period of time there has been an election where the people of Kootenay—Columbia chose me to come back to the House so again I presented the same bill to the House.
The bill then goes into a lottery. I have three bills in this hopper at this time. My name was drawn and I had to choose one of the bills. I considered this bill to be the most important of the three I have presently in the system.
We then go before a committee that makes a judgment as to whether these bills are going to become votable. If it is votable it will be able to move from this Chamber after second reading to committee.
I am fully aware that the justice committee is exceptionally busy at this time. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the committee. There is no intent with this minuscule change that we are talking about to add to this already onerous workload. It is a simple matter of saying here is an improvement, could we get this small improvement included in a future omnibus bill that will be brought forward containing many other bits and pieces of improvements to the legal system. That is my direction.
I went before the committee and said could we make this votable so that the House could move the proposed bill to the committee. That committee in its wisdom said, for whatever reason, it is not important enough and that it will not permit this to be votable.
Therefore it seems logical that with the committee's having arrived at that decision I should ask for unanimous consent of this House to permit this to become a votable bill. I do not expect a tremendous amount of debate on the bill but at the end of the day that the House allow this to move forward to committee work. I ask for unanimous consent.