Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-3 with mixed emotions. I say that because this bill does not go far enough in addressing the concerns of the law-abiding citizens of this country.
Since I was elected to this House in 1993 I have listened to hon. members on the other side of the House who have stood here time after time to proclaim how concerned they are about the judicial system in this country, how concerned they are about the victims of crime in this country, how they are going to work toward stopping crime in this country. Since 1993, I am sorry to say, I have seen them do absolutely nothing with regard to this.
They have come up with Bill C-3, respecting DNA. We all agree that DNA sampling is good. It has to come into play. There is no argument. But when we go through the bill and we see again our caring, sharing Liberal government on that side decide that the rights of criminals far outweigh the rights of victims, I have to wonder exactly what it is doing and how it keeps getting away with this.
I have said time and time again that the first priority of any government has to be the protection of its law-abiding citizens. I will say it again in this House. This government has no intention of supplying that. To me this bill shows it.
In this bill there is the authority to deny the taking of DNA samples from any individual if it is believed that by doing so it will impact the individual's privacy and security. This is somebody who has been picked up with regard to a crime. The government says they do not have to take this. The government says it infringes upon their constitutional right. Never mind the rights of the victims, it infringes upon this individual's rights.
If I am picked up, accused of committing a crime, and I know I am innocent, I will be the first one there to roll up my sleeve. I will let them take the hair. I will let them take fingerprints. In fact they can take fingerprints today. Is that not an infringement? They take breathalyser tests for drunk drivers. Is that not an infringement? They take blood samples today. Is that not an infringement?
I have to shake my head at the stupidity of what is going on here. The Liberals does not seem to understand. They forget the many victims who have come into this House, the many victims who have been to their offices and talked to them.
I want to speak of the concerns of the rape victims in this country who have had to sit and wait. They can sit and smile over there, but they know it is true. The victims have been to their offices to beg and plead for something to happen with regard to this DNA bill so they can go on with their lives. They want to know whether they have been infected with a disease or if there will be an impact on their families. They do not want to wait 12 months for the results. That is what this bill does not allow. This is the sharing, caring government of this country? It is a shame.
We have information from the police associations that this bill does not go far enough. It is a joke. The government gets support, the screaming and the hollering from the criminal lawyers, and it decides that maybe it can pick that up and run with it. It tries to offset this because it might be against somebody's constitutional rights.
The Liberals stand day after day to say that Canada has been voted as the best country in the world in which to live. By being here today the Liberals are pulling off a sick, sad joke on the law-abiding citizens of this country. We have seen it time after time.
We live in a democracy, a great democracy. The Liberals like to tell us about this great wondrous democracy called Canada. In this House of Commons, to which we have been sent, duly elected by people in our constituencies to represent them, we have today a thing called closure in regard to this bill. It is by the same bunch that sat over here and said they would never do what the Conservatives did when in power. That same bunch has moved time allocation and closure in this House more times than any previous government in the history of Canada. Some democracy. That is some way to look after the law-abiding taxpaying citizens of this country. They are the people who pay the government's wages and it shuts the door.
The Liberals will stand and say they do not understand how we could not vote in favour of this bill, that there is a little section in the bill that is good. There is a little section that is good, that can be covered in four words, while the remaining 36 pages are total garbage.
They want us to accept this. They would love us to stand here and sell out our principles for those three little words that are good in this bill. I absolutely refuse to do that. It is a shame that they play politics this way. Maybe it is time it changed. I think in the next election it will change because people are sick and tired of things like this coming down the tube.