Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise on the second group of motions to make a few remarks.
I think the hon. member from the Bloc had the best intentions in mind when he proposed these amendments. They do not make the picture clearer as far as what we are trying to do with this bill.
I think the overriding principle of this bill should be that we protect the law-abiding citizen, that we do everything possible to give that protection to people who are affected by criminal acts.
I want to go back to about March 1995 when my son was brutally attacked in Winnipeg. He was beaten beyond recognition but hung on to life by a thin thread for a number of days.
When I phoned the police in Winnipeg to see what was being done to apprehend this person or persons who had attacked my son and a friend so brutally, they were rather at a loss. They had had a similar incident at the same place in October and a person was killed. They felt this was another incident where a gang had demanded some kind of violent act from people who wanted to be initiated and that killing a person was part of the initiation to get into that gang. I would have done anything to catch that person.
Had there been a databank available for the police to use in October, they could have at least marked the person even if they could not have apprehended the person. They could have then cross referenced that sample with the sample of the persons who attacked my son. I would have been very supportive of that.
I agree with the parliamentary secretary that we cannot try to take a piece out of a map. A map is very important to me when I travel across the country. If a destination on the map has been erased or there is a detour I did not know about, I would get lost and the map would not be of much value to me. That is the way I look at this databank. If we are going to form the bank, put some of the funding principles of the bank into the system and then erase the data samples of those who have been wrongly accused, we will run into a lot of problems.
Often the intent of the bills we pass in this House is very good but the bills do not go far enough. That is similar to when people plan trips. They have a time limit within which to get to a destination. That is the way I look at this databank. It is another tool we are being given to make sure we arrive at the destination we have been planning on over the last number of years.
Fingerprinting was a good tool. It has worked for many years. It has been used in some good investigative work. Now we have the extra tool of a DNA databank. We should make full use of it. We should use it to its best within the circumstances so that citizens and not the criminals get the protection.
We are so often worried and concerned that criminals will not have their rights. In my opinion when a criminal violates the law and he is involved in a violent act or in some act that affects society, there is a price to pay. If the databank can be used to mark this individual in a way that is not public but is there for the protection of the ordinary citizen, then it should be used to its fullest extent.
It is very important that the crime rate in Canada be brought down. Statistics show that violent crimes are continually going up. This is not just happening among the general population but with young offenders, adults and even some seniors. When I read of violent crimes by seniors I do not know whether it is old age or their attitude toward each other.
We were in the United States for a short holiday. A couple of seniors were playing cards and before the game was over they were both dead. One wonders how a couple of friends could be playing cards and get into such a furious fight that they would kill each other.
Sometimes things are overdone but in many cases when these criminal acts occur, it is a matter of the police finding out what has happened and getting to the bottom and the truth of it. If criminals are aware of the fact that there is very little chance of them escaping the law, that in itself will deter crime. It is important that we have more impact on criminals to make them realize they will be caught and will serve a penalty. That can override the few freedoms they demand because of the charter of rights. I would rather sacrifice somewhat and err on the principle of freedoms and rights than on the principle of criminality that the non-violent law-abiding ordinary citizen was not paying a price for.
It has become almost an accepted fact that someone in every family will suffer from a violent act. That is sad. Years and years ago when I was a teenager it only happened in large cities and it only happened to someone else. I hear of drive by shootings in my own little town of Altona. I hear of a murder in Miami because of the drug trade. And I found out in the last couple of weeks that one of my neighbours was gunned down because he was involved as an undercover agent for the RCMP, and there are no clues as to who did it.
I am therefore very determined that we in this House pass legislation that will make sure the criminals are apprehended. This bill is another tool for doing that. It is important that we make this bill as effective a tool as it can be to apprehend criminals. I think everyone is concerned about privacy and rights, but once people are affected by crimes and suffer through violent crimes, it becomes more important that we as lawmakers pass legislation that will protect citizens.
There are experiences in other countries where we can see how laws have affected the land. I was in the Soviet Union in 1991. I was told there were only 40 people in the city of Moscow to enforce the laws. That was scary. The government at the time had dictated law through the military regime. There had been no civil law and the government's policy of perestroika was taking place. The government did not have the laws of the land to protect law-abiding citizens. Following Soviet history in the last couple of years the criminal element has become stronger rather than weaker.
It is so very important that we give our RCMP and law enforcement officers a DNA databank that can identify people and which will not just catch criminals and ensure they were the ones involved in the criminal act but will also protect individuals who were not involved but happened to be in the wrong place. I mentioned David Milgaard earlier as an example.