My colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot will certainly talk about it in his speech. There may a lack of funds, but the issue goes beyond that and we must take a serious look at all the legislative tools available.
Speaking of legislative tools, the issue of witness and jury protection immediately comes to mind. Are jury members adequately protected , since they must decide whether an accused is guilty or not while all his friends are sitting in the front rows, staring at them throughout the trial? This is very intimidating. It is not surprising that we have difficulties finding people willing to sit on a jury and follow the rules.
Then there are the witnesses. Do we provide adequate protection to witnesses? We should check to see if we do.
Building a case is one of the major problems faced by police officers. They have techniques to infiltrate crime gangs, but is it enough? Should we not review certain provisions in the Criminal Code to allow undercover officers, as they are commonly called, to commit criminal acts to be on the criminals' good books and eventually be in a position to testify? This is an extremely complex area, but we must take a look at the whole issue.
We must improve the exchange of information between the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec and various departments, because police forces complain that communications are very bad.
I could spend another hour discussing this issue, but my time is almost up, so I know I have to wrap up. I will conclude by urging all members of this House to forget about the fact that this is a motion from the opposition, from the sovereignists in this House, because we are simply asking that the committee conduct a serious study of the whole issue of organized crime.
I am asking members to overlook that fact and to vote with the Bloc Quebecois so that a serious, non-partisan study of the whole issue of organized crime can take place, and that a report be submitted to the House no later than October 31, 2000. This would allow us to begin the new millennium with good tools to fight organized crime effectively.