Mr. Speaker, my hat goes off to the previous speaker. I think he gave a very compelling address to this parliament. I have the greatest respect for him, his legal background and his input on the justice committee. He obviously has substantial experience which is of benefit to us at that committee.
We have before us, in the form of amendments, Motions Nos. 10 and 11. This is perhaps our last chance to right a potential wrong because we are not going to have the opportunity to do it again for some time.
The motion put forward by the hon. member for Crowfoot is aimed specifically at allowing for the collection of DNA evidence at the time of charge. It has an additional safeguard, which was put in I suggest as a compromise to entice members of the government to take a second look at this amendment. This amendment would allow a person who has previously been convicted of a schedule of offences that have been deemed heinous enough or serious enough to suggest that therefore the prevention element should take precedence over that particular convicted person's right to be free from this intrusive taking of a DNA sample.
I will speak to that issue of intrusiveness later in my remarks, but the important point to be made here is that what we are talking about is the taking of a DNA sample which would allow for the prevention of the further commission of an offence, potentially, because the police with the DNA in their possession at that point in time could then take that sample and match it with crime scene samples that are connected to outstanding crimes.
Figures were discussed at the justice committee. In the province of British Columbia alone there are 600 unsolved murders. If we calculate that in terms of the population across the country, in terms of sexual assaults, serious assaults and unsolved crimes, what greater benefit could there be than for the use of such an innovative police investigative tool to address and solve these crimes? We should keep in mind that the perpetrators of these crimes are still out there. They have not been caught. They are not accountable. They have not been brought to justice. They are ready, I would suggest, to do it again.
This amendment would allow the police to make that match, to make that connection, to go out there armed with that evidence and hopefully complete an investigation that might prevent the perpetration of another crime.
I have the greatest respect for the hon. member who spoke previously. He has a great deal of confidence in the justice lawyers. I do not share the same degree of confidence. We have seen in the past that the Department of Justice has gone outside of its own lawyers' cadre to get a practising lawyer to represent the government in court. We have seen that in the current firearms challenge in Alberta. Similarly what we saw here was an opinion at the eleventh hour from three very respected jurists. There is no question they are very respected, but I would suggest that the question that was put to them was put to them in very narrow terms, coupled with the fact that we already knew the position of the government. Mr. Speaker, you will have to excuse my scepticism on the response that we received.
That is of course not the only opinion that the justice committee had the benefit of. We had the benefit of a similarly respected and decorated criminal lawyer, Mr. Danson, who gave the opinion in a very straightforward way that in fact the sampling at the time of charge, and that is without this added designation of having a previous conviction, would withstand a charter challenge.
I embrace some of the comments with respect to the supremacy of this parliament and the responsibility that we have here to make laws in the area of criminal law.
The remarks of the hon. member I think reflect, in many ways, the opinions of a lot of the non-partisanship that must go into the criminal field. The members of the committee voiced very similar opinions regarding the fact that we are being supreme court driven. That is a dangerous area in which to find ourselves.
Criminal law, first and foremost, has to be accountable and responsible to the people. The people have elected members of parliament. They have entrusted them and placed in them their hope and desire that we will make laws which reflect the protection of the public and the accountability we must find in our criminal justice system.
When there is a supreme court paranoia or a supreme court constipation about criminal law it is a very dangerous position to be in.
The hon. member gave the very apt example of Paul Bernardo. He said that under the current legislation we would not be able to use his DNA in future investigations. The very premise of this motion is that we should be taking a very proactive as opposed to reactive role in the use of DNA in the criminal justice system.
The important example made and emphasized by the Canadian Police Association was that an individual taken into custody for a designated offence, who was previously charged and convicted of a designated offence, has the benefit of due process.
If the police cannot take a DNA sample and use it in the course of a trial, use it as a sample against other outstanding, unsolved offences, it is a lost opportunity. It will slip through our fingers.
The Canadian Police Association emphasized the fact—and there are statistics to support this position—that individuals who are released on bail are simply not going to return. If criminals have in the back of their minds that if they return and are convicted of an offence they must face the possibility that they will have their DNA matched with a crime they knew they committed in another part of the country, they will not return for trial.
They are certainly not going to return if they are charged with a break and enter offence and they know they were involved in an offence of a much more serious personal nature, such as murder or sexual assault. If that opportunity is lost because of the way the current legislation is drafted it would be an absolute tragedy.
This motion, in a very straightforward way, would address that. It would allow police to use DNA to a much greater degree. That is the intention here. There is no hidden agenda. I would suggest that this motion is put forward in a very constructive, straightforward and practical way. I am surprised there is not more support for it.
Luckily we will have the opportunity to vote. I am still holding out hope and optimism that common sense will prevail and we will find that this amendment will be accepted.
The safeguards we have in place in the rest of the bill, that is to say, the provisions that would make it criminal if a person was to misuse the DNA technology, I suggest would protect individual rights. They would protect individuals from the fear of misuse; the Orwellian thought that somehow, some way, a person might misuse this DNA and therefore create a miscarriage of justice.
We cannot succumb to that fear, given the public interest and the importance of optimizing the use of DNA technology. It will happen. Mark my words. If Canada does not seize the opportunity to be on the cutting edge, to be a country prepared to move forward, making the most of this DNA legislation, we will be left behind. Other countries will be looking at our country, shaking their heads and saying “Why didn't they do it when they had the opportunity?”
In conclusion, I want to suggest that both of the amendments found in Group No. 10 could gain the support and the confidence of all members of this House. When the vote is before us, I am encouraging and hoping that all members on both sides of this House will put partisanship aside and put common sense and good, right-minded thinking first.