Mr. Speaker, the motion reads:
That this House instruct the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to conduct a study of organized crime, to analyze the options available to parliament to combat the activities of criminal groups and to report to the House no later than October 31, 2000.
I say at the outset that I support the motion and look forward to the reference to the committee on which I sit and which I consider to be a very important committee to the House.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the hon. member for Berthier—Montcalm for his initiative in this area. It is always appropriate that parliament oversees government initiatives and, in this particular instance, this is a valuable and worthwhile initiative.
I will speak to the irony underlying this discussion. This irony revolves around the rule of law. Canada prides itself as a nation subject to the rule of law, much to the chagrin sometimes of many of the members of the House, particularly when the rule of law comes in conflict with, for instance, the supremacy of parliament or when we have interpretations from the Supreme Court of Canada which conflict with the will of parliament. Fortunately, we all respect the rule of law and therefore are able to work out those conflicting points.
Governments are circumscribed by the rule of law. Institutions are circumscribed by the rule of law. Individuals are circumscribed by the rule of law. People in institutions cannot simply do what seems most advantageous to their self-interest, regardless of whether it be in the field of criminality or in the field of civil law.
Canadians live under the rule of law and see it as their most valuable tool to protect themselves, their families and their assets against arbitrary actions by governments, institutions, police and other individuals.
Organized crime on the other hand has no such limitations. Whether it is trafficking in people, drugs, liquor or stolen cars, organized crime challenges the very basis of our Canadian society as we know it and, therefore, it is a threat like no other threat to our civilization.
The irony is that while organized crime seeks to destroy the rule of law in order to gain its revenues, it simultaneously wishes to invest its revenues and its proceeds from its activities in the societies which have the highest standards of the rule of law, because there they provide safe and secure banking systems, safe and secure property registration systems and safe and secure judicial remedies.
The irony is resplendent that ill-gotten gains, regardless of where they come from, whether they be from North America or from other places, frequently end up here because of the rule of the law and because of the security of our various institutions.
I hope I am not naive, and there are some who might say otherwise, but I believe that organized crime will be with us forever, much like original sin, of which many of our members know a great deal. It has been around since the dawn of time and is not likely to go away soon.
Given that it is not likely to go away soon, we have to be realistic about what can or cannot be done in the area of organized crime. I believe we should support the efforts of the RCMP in their interdictions in Sri Lanka for people smuggling, or in Akwesasne for other kinds of smuggling. The question really is whether the government is approaching this in the best possible fashion. What are the initiatives that make the most sense?
To me, hitting at profitability is what makes a great deal of sense. What hits most at profitability? I think that will be the question that determines the direction of the committee. For instance, the principles enunciated by the ministers collective of justice for the country states that taking a profit out of organized is an effective way of putting these criminals out of business and efforts to seize their illegal proceeds should be vigorously pursued. I support that view.
Let us take a look at some of the initiatives that this government has taken on in the last few years. The first initiative is the $115 million given to the RCMP to upgrade its CPIC facility. I had the good fortune of touring that facility in the last term and found it to be a useful tour. I encourage the other members to do so as well because the information held in those files is quite useful in fighting crime.
The next one was $18 million to the data bank initiative. Many of these people have no compunction about any method in order to secure their profits.
An additional $78 million to the national anti-smuggling initiative will fund 100 additional RCMP officers in major airports to help target organized criminals who use these airports as points of entry into Canada.
An additional $15 million paid annually will put more RCMP officers in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, and $13.8 million to the RCMP to use for workload increases. Thirteen proceeds of crime units have been created within the RCMP across Canada.
While all of these are laudable initiatives, I do not want to be circumscribing the work of the committee, assuming the motion goes forward, by simply listening to what the government says. To my mind, if those initiatives do not meet the profitability test as to cutting out the profitability of the activities of organized crime, then we probably have to ask ourselves whether that is well spent money. If the foregoing interrupts the profitability anywhere along a spectrum then, in my view, the initiative is doing a good job.
I look forward to the reference to the committee. I reflect on the last time that parliament referred an initiative to the justice committee which was in the area of drunk driving. We on the justice committee spent a great deal of time reviewing the evidence. As the evidence came before us, we started to see the patterns that were there and the gaps in the legislation. We were fortunate enough to not only be able to produce a unanimous report, but the justice committee also produced a bill which was referred back to the House and in turn proclaimed on July 1.
In my constituency, the work of the justice committee and the support that we received from the justice minister and the government in that area, and from all parties, was well received by my constituents. I look forward to this initiative also being dutifully undertaken by the committee and that it will produce a report that will not only be of use to the government but of use to the House.
Frankly, I will be interested at looking at anything that is effective. I will also be interested in looking at initiatives which are not effective. We live in a world of limited resources. We continue to live and will always live in a world of limited resources. We as a government will always be criticized that we never apply enough resources. If the resources that are being applied are not useful and are misdirected then that should also be part of the review of the committee.
While I appreciate that there is an irony going on here, that the rule of law is being abrogated by a certain subset of criminals, ironically, the work of the committee will, I hope, return us to the rule of law. I hope that ultimately, as we examine this issue, we will continue to move ourselves back to a rule of law and a society where all people can have security of person and property.