Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to hear the hon. member opposite from the Liberal Party talking about the arm's length independent relationship between the RCMP and the Prime Minister's Office and government given the facts that are now being examined regarding the APEC summit.
My question specifically relates to this legislation. I was a member of the justice committee when we debated the bill at that level. We know that DNA evidence is inculpatory as well as exculpatory. It is evidence that can be used to free individuals, not only to convict them.
The debate over intrusiveness has drawn a lot of fire from both sides of the House. Intrusiveness for whom? Intrusiveness for an individual charged and arrested? I would think that many individuals in this country, given the opportunity to clarify the situation, would voluntarily want to give their DNA if they truly felt they had nothing to do with a particular criminal matter.
My question specifically surrounds the assertion that this type of evidence is going to protect Canadians to the full extent that it could, given the fact that if an individual is picked up on a charge in one part of the country, this legislation, in its current form, will not allow the police to take a DNA sample to cross-reference it to an outstanding matter to which there may be DNA evidence at the crime scene that was entered into the DNA data bank. This hypothesis was brought forward by the police community.
If an individual is picked up in one part of the country and charged with an offence, the police cannot take the DNA. If there is existing DNA at another crime scene, a murder or a rape, the individual will be released because presumably there will be no evidence to hold him based on the seriousness of that particular crime. We do not have returnable warrants in most parts of the country, so the person can then flee the jurisdiction and therefore be held unaccountable.
This scenario is a real one. It is something that will happen without a doubt.
I ask the hon. member to address that situation and tell us how that gives any assurance whatsoever to Canadians that this legislation goes far enough to address that.