Mr. Speaker, this motion today strikes I believe at the very moral fibre of this nation. I think we are trying to correct and at least get politicians in the House of Commons to acknowledge their responsibilities to uphold that moral fibre. That is what we will be talking about all day.
Some of my colleagues will be talking about the legalistic terms involved in this issue. Some of us will be bringing the issue closer to home.
I would ask that the government listen to the speeches that are made on this issue today and act. That is what we are looking.
This motion is asking for immediate legislative measures; not next year, not in six months, not action in courts, but immediate legislative measures. We ask that we reinstate a law which already existed that made it illegal to possess child pornography. We are not recreating a law, we are really establishing that moral fibre which already exists, even if that entails invoking the notwithstanding aspect of our charter of rights and freedoms and our whole Constitution.
One might ask why it is necessary that the Reform Party take a day in the House of Commons to try to get a government which has a full majority mandate in the country to do what is right in the first place, what was already illegal in the country and to correct what has been made wrong by the eyes of one court session, one judge in the country. Why is it that the judiciary and the legal industry are rewriting and seem to be even creating the laws of our country within the courtrooms, and it is not done here in the House of Commons?
I do not believe that parents or anybody in this country understand what is going on. Have we completely in the House of Commons vacated our responsibility as those who make laws? Have we passed it over to the courtrooms? Is that what this all about?
Most people in this country today feel that the laws are not made in the House, but that they are made by people out there. They are made by those who are getting paid to take sides on issues, and that is incorrect. We have to re-establish tonight at a vote in the House of Commons at 5:30 p.m. the authority of the House of Commons. It is time for all of us to stand in the House tonight to say that the possession of child pornography is illegal.
One might think that this is the first time this has come up in the country, but it is not. I have been speaking on this issue for several years.
In February 1996 a Port Hardy, B.C. provincial court judge, Brian Sanderson, gave 57 year old Vernon Logan an absolute discharge. I spoke about that in the House some time ago. Even though Logan pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, the judge said “The law banning child pornography violates the charter of rights because it is an infringement of one's freedom of thought, belief or opinion as unfettered access to reading materials necessary to exercise those freedoms”.
I do not understand how we have gone from this court case to yet another court case and now, subsequent to the latest issue in a courtroom in British Columbia, we have other courts saying that the possession of child pornography looks like it is okay. “It is legal today, so we will let that go”.
We have established an unprecedented criteria for the possession and production of child pornography. A person cannot possess child pornography unless it is produced. We must understand the consequences of those decisions.
This is not a time for politicians to walk away from their responsibility and once again ask the lawyers and judges of our country to do the job that we do not have the courage to do. It is time tonight to make that decision.
I think and I know that parents think this because our phones have been ringing off the hook: People are concerned that we condone something that is immoral. It is against all family values of all types, all sorts. It is something that cannot occur in this country.
If people can believe this, after that decision was made several pedophiles in the United States were communicating back and forth on the Internet. One of the comments on the Internet was “I would rather live in Canada than the United States and love children”. That comment was between two pedophiles who were talking to each other on the Internet. Is that what we want Canada to be known as, a place where pedophiles can come and love children and read pornography because it is legal? Is that what the Liberal government wants for our country? I do not think so.
If it were only the Reform Party the government might say “There they go again. We should liberalize our social fibre. The Reform Party does not like it”. However, I happen to know that the opposition parties are going to support the vote tonight. I happen to have 63 names from the other side who have asked the Prime Minister to petition to change the legislation re-establishing that child pornography is illegal. One of those members is the hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, who won a by-election and who also voted against his constituency on the hepatitis C issue.
We will see tonight where individuals like that stand. Do they stand for sending a letter quietly to the Prime Minister, saying that he has to change the laws, but when they stand to be counted on national television in front of everybody they will do what they are told to do? This is not about whipping the machinery of a political party into place, this is about standing up for the moral fibre of our country.
Let me tell the House what some other people think. Here are some quotes: “It is frustrating when you try to work in a system that does not support what you are doing. It sends a message to the kids that society thinks child pornography is okay”. That came from Shana Chetner, youth counsellor at the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Services. She is not a politician, but somebody who works with people who have suffered as a result activities that are supported by child pornography.
Detective Bob Matthews, head of the child porn unit of the Ontario Provincial Police said “The law criminalizing possession is crucial when it comes to finding child pornographers. Removing that part of the law would be devastating to police. That is what we use to get most search warrants, and the only way we can search for evidence of selling and distributing”.
Matthews also said “I cannot get my mind around how someone can say there is nothing wrong with the possession of child pornography. It always looks different when it is somebody else's child, but let a member of your family have that happen, let it be your child who has been violated to the extreme, knowing that some pedophile has been masturbating to a picture of your son or daughter being violated to such an extent. Tell me there is no harm in that”.
I speak as a son, a father and on behalf of all the citizens of Langley—Abbotsford, British Columbia. I want to vote tonight on this issue. Tomorrow I want legislation in the House expressly forbidding the possession of child pornography. Why does this government and all members not stand tonight to be accounted for?