Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his excellent remarks.
When a bill comes before parliament that deals with the remuneration of public figures it serves the very useful purpose of giving us the opportunity to examine the roles of those public figures. It is very much in the public interest that we do so.
The member alluded to some of the earlier debates on the bill and mentioned that the Reform Party had made some disparaging remarks about the behaviour of judges and their quality.
I draw to his attention that this attitude of questioning the discretion of judges is not something that is exclusive to the Reform Party. It is a very worrisome trend that exists generally in society today, on this side of the House and in the justice department.
The issue is how far we go in giving discretion to judges. As the member mentioned, the law and the interpretation of the law and the issues it deals with are very human issues. Traditionally in common law we have relied on the judges to use their good judgment, their experience of life and their compassion to interpret the law.
Unfortunately there seems to have been a very alarming trend over recent years to withdraw some of the discretionary powers of judges. A perfect example is the whole concept of minimum sentences.
This is question and comment period. I was hoping to offer the member some comments which I think are very important and directly arise from his remarks. A number of private members' bills were before the House in the previous sitting that dealt with minimum sentences for drunk driving. We had quite a sharp debate here and I spoke on that occasion.
My concern is that while we want to protect victims rights and that kind of thing we must allow the judges compassion to deal with cases in which perhaps even no sentence at all or no jail term at all is appropriate because sometimes there are rare instances like that.
For the member's benefit I refer to another bill that passed through the House in the last parliament, Bill C-46, the access to records legislation. It is now before the supreme court on a challenge. I do not want to refer to the charter challenge that Bill C-46 is now encountering.
What was relevant in that bill was that it limited the discretion of judges to request the records of therapists in sexual assault cases. Judges already had the power to hear from the accused, to look at the records and to determine whether the records were relevant.
Bill C-46 seriously curtailed the judge's discretion to seek records by citing certain conditions the judge would have to take into account before he could request those records from therapists on behalf of the accused.
This type of restriction on a judge's ability to interpret the law and to act equally on the side of the person making the accusation and more important the defendant causes some concern. We must never hobble a judge's discretion to use his discretion. I feel there is an alarming trend particularly in victims rights cases and cases involving sexual assault, drunk driving and alimony. These are areas in which the opportunities for judges to exercise discretion were limited by bills in the last parliament.
Could the member comment on that? I believe it is a very serious problem to restrict the opportunity of judges to do their job. One reason we want to pay judges well is to get the most talented individuals possible who will exercise the best discretion possible. We must give those judges that discretion.