Mr. Speaker, the members opposite do not seem to agree with that. Let me share with everyone something spoken by one of the Reform Party members. I believe the member for Wild Rose said in the May 10, 1994 Edmonton Journal “I do not think that kind of punishment hurts one doggone bit”. He was referring to caning. “In fact I think it probably has more effect than what we do today”.
The justice critic for the “ing” party decided that he wanted to travel to Singapore to study the merits of introducing caning to Canada's justice system. What a spectacle. Imagine in our public places, in our courtyards, in our school yards, in our homes that we would actually resort to caning as a solution to violence. That is the Reform mentality. If we cane them it will hurt so they will stop being violent.
I do not profess to be an expert, unlike many members opposite, but I have read many articles written by experts and any expert will tell us that violence begets violence. That is exactly the kind of thing we want to stop.
The same member went on to say “I do not think caning is too extreme”. That is from the Calgary Herald of May 10, 1994.
The Reform Party, or the “ing” party as I like to call it, has not excluded young offenders from what it refers to as its two strike and you are out policy. This would mean, as the justice critic who is sitting here right now listening to this, said in the Toronto Sun of August 15, 1996 “the repeat offender”—and because they have not excluded young offenders, young offenders would be included in this policy—“will never see the light of day after committing his second act”.
That is just terrific. That is going to solve our problems. We will throw them in a dungeon, lock them up and forget about them. Young offenders need to be treated properly by professionals not locked up in some medieval archaic way as that party would profess.
I see the member from Wild Rose has come in, the member who was illustriously quoted in the Edmonton Sun in March 1995 in referring to his time as a school principal. He saw remarkable change in behaviour among those who had “tasted a piece of wood”. That is just brilliant.
It is a remarkable quantum leap to go from the motion that was put very responsibly by the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, whom I saw on Canada AM this morning speaking about his policy on the headstart program dealing with young people. It is a quantum leap in logic to go from dealing with a pregnant woman and helping her give birth and raise a healthy, happy child to caning, to hitting them with a piece of wood.
Where in the world did you guys come from? When they loaded up the wagon train to come east I guess they checked their brains at the Manitoba border.