Madam Speaker, I really respect the intervention by the member. I know she feels very strongly that way. I commend her for her conviction and I know she is sincere.
It strikes me that within the criminal justice system many aspects of it are handcuffed by virtue of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The vast majority of Canadians highly value that document, as they should.
The difficulty is that the Canadian charter in some instances does get in the way not only of good law, such as this would be in strengthening this DNA data bank, it even gets in the way of Corrections Canada. The inmates are running the show as a result of the charter of rights. There is going to have to come a day when, and perhaps this bill would be as good a one as any, whether we call it the notwithstanding clause or whatever is brought into effect.
The charter with all of its good points has unnecessarily handcuffed the ability of peace officers, whether they are in Corrections Canada or are police officers, from being able to do what is fair and reasonable. We therefore have a charter industry populated by some very expensive, hundreds of dollars an hour lawyers who are constantly digging this thing up and taking things apart.
It strikes me that the safety of the people of Canada, their families and their property should come before these other considerations. I realize and admit that this is a rather extreme statement, but we have to reach a point where we are going to have to ask who comes first, the criminal or the law-abiding citizen?