Mr. Speaker, I am rushing on. There was a lead up to Bill C-284.
We are talking about pardoning. I have to bring a subject up because we have had some people—and I hate to say this being their federal member of parliament—of disrepute who on occasion have gone through the pardoning system, or have attempted to go through the pardoning system, or on occasion perhaps should have used or taken advantage of the system of pardoning as distributed by the solicitor general.
One person was a man in Stonecliffe, Ontario by the name of Wild Willie Buckshot. It is too bad that the hon. member from Souris is not here because as the story goes with this pardoning, he actually rode with the notorious outlaw Jesse James. This is a true story. He said that Jesse James fell off his horse while robbing a bank and he went back and picked up Jesse James and rescued him. For this very humane act he was charged under the Criminal Code with aiding and abetting a robbery. He believed that he should have received a pardon.
I am not sure whether or not he did get a pardon but the gist of the story is that Wild Willie Buckshot turned out to be a very respectable member of that community. As a matter of fact he became known as one of the premier lumbermen in that area. He happened to also have a chicken farm. I do not know how they both relate but it is just to show the system of pardoning.
We then had a former mayor of the city of Pembroke by the name of Angus A. Campbell who believed that he was wrongly done by because they put a bypass around the community of Petawawa. It went through his farm.
If the hon. member listens and pays strict attention he will see the end of where I am coming to in this pardoning system. I understand this is a private members' bill and that I am at a luxury here to go about this in a roundabout way. On occasion many of the members speaking have been rather abrupt with it, giving all the nuances of this bill. I am just taking a different cut on it.
When I speak about the former mayor of the city of Pembroke, what he did was very appropriate. He stood in the middle of Highway 17 with a shotgun and stopped all traffic on both sides of the king's highway. As a result of that there was a possibility that he would be charged. He wanted an outlet into his property because it was hurting his place of business.
Would that person be an offensive person to the community? I do not think he would be. I do not believe that he would. Perhaps the members opposite would think so. He became the vice-president of the Canadian Association of Mayors.
Then we had a lawyer called Maloney. Members may be interested in this. He was a criminal lawyer of note. He went into the court system. He had a person who had been charged. In his presentation before the judge he clearly indicated to the judge that the person had not lied since he was rocked in a cradle. As a result of that the judge dispensed justice in the appropriate manner. He pardoned his sins, if we want to look at it in that regard. How this lawyer pulled this grandiose feat off was he rocked the person in a cradle in his chambers before he went into the court system.
I realize that my time is running out and I want to get to the real point. Apparently one in ten Canadians have a criminal record. That would lead me to believe that, and perhaps I should not extrapolate from this, but the loyal opposition has 60 members and perhaps six of them have a criminal record. If they have done something of disrepute and want to be pardoned for that, they can appeal to the solicitor general. I cannot see any problem in that if there is some justification to the pardoning process.
When we come to sexual offences concerning young children, the basis of my talk has been that we cannot take a broad brush and paint the entire society in a negative fashion because of things done in a repugnant manner by a small minority. I believe Bill C-284 is going to address the concerns of the people who can take advantage of the pardoning system in a fair and equitable manner.
Rest assured, Mr. Speaker, and hon. members opposite, that it will be the Liberal Party of Canada that will continue to look after and care for the benefits of all people irrespective of age, gender and nationality. Goodness gracious, we will even look after members of the Conservative Party if they so desire.