Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today. Regrettably, we have to rise to demand that this government make changes to the justice system which reflect the views of the vast majority of Canadians.
Regrettably, it is we in the opposition who have to remind the government constantly of its responsibility to react to what Canadians are saying, rather than reacting to its own philosophies when it comes to criminal justice.
I am going to talk about the criminal justice system as it relates to impaired driving today. Before I do, I want to take this opportunity to relate something which was very disturbing to me.
On Thursday, March 4, I read in the paper that a 57 year old woman, a grandmother, had just been released from prison after spending six months in incarceration. On Saturday, March 6, I read in the paper that another person had been sentenced to six months in prison.
The second person, on March 6, was sentenced for the act of child abuse, sexually molesting a child. This person, according to the report, was unrepentant. He saw nothing wrong with what he did. He received a sentence of six months, of which he will serve probably two and a half months under the Liberal justice system.
Let us return to Thursday, March 4, when this 57 year old lady was let out of prison. She served six months in prison because she dared to cross into a bubble zone around an abortion clinic to kneel and pray.
If anybody in the House, anybody in the Liberal government, could show me some sense of justice in the relationship between those sentences and crimes I would be very surprised. Imagine, an unrelenting, unrepentant child molester sentenced to six months and someone who dares to cross a bubble zone at an abortion clinic to kneel to pray receives the same sentence. It is unbelievable how our justice system serves up so much injustice. It is so out of whack.
I mention that because it shocked me. Even though there is no reaction I am sure it is shocking members of the Liberal government to hear that. If they do not believe what I am saying I suggest they dig up those two issues and read them for themselves.
Impaired driving is a very serious crime. It kills in the neighbourhood of 1,400 people every single year. It injures over 60,000 every year. As a matter of fact, impaired driving is the number one cause of criminal death in this country, more than three times higher than homicide. In the last five years it has cost our health care system. The property and causality claims are billions of dollars. In over 10 years nothing substantial has been done to arrest this very serious problem.
Over the last month and a half we have seen witnesses come before the justice committee to present their opinions on how we should address this very serious crime of impaired driving and how we can cut the senseless deaths. Now the justice committee is charged with reviewing all the testimony, taking into consideration all the recommendations and to bring back before the House by May 15 a bill that will take some very serious and positive steps to cutting the incidence of impaired driving, cutting deaths, injuries and cutting the cost to our health care.
I have to tell members at this time that I have some very serious doubts as to whether these Liberals, who talk the talk about wanting to cut the carnage on our highways, cut the incidence of death and injuries and the billions of dollars of cost, are serious. I have seen no indication that these Liberal members who sit on the justice committee and others who well over a year ago unanimously sent to the justice committee a supply day motion by the Reform Party that called for action are serious in any way about addressing the very serious crime of impaired driving.
Millions of Canadians have cried out for the federal government to take some leadership on this crime and do something that would reflect a zero tolerance attitude toward impaired driving. The victims of impaired driving deserve no less.
I am sad to say I am not confident at this time, having been involved in the justice committee hearings and the subsequent meetings going on right now, the government is serious despite what it has said.
There are a number of steps we can take. I guess the most appropriate one would be to look at the level of blood alcohol content in the driver of a vehicle once the reading on the breathalyzer is determined. There is much testimony to support the lowering of this level to .05 from .08, which I support. We also have a very serious problem with the court system that has not been addressed by this or previous governments.
In cases where people are charged with impaired driving we have heard testimony from prosecutors and policing officials that the judiciary automatically tends to accept the evidence of the person who is charged rather than the evidence of the crown prosecutor and the police force that has laid the charge. Something is wrong with that picture.
Something is wrong when a prosecutor can walk into a court, present certificate evidence from very high tech instruments to detect the level of BAC, where the margin of error is so small that it is almost insignificant, and the judge will tend to believe evidence contrary to those proven certificates of evidence.
I really hope, for the sake of the victims of impaired drivers, for the families left behind and for the sake of our health care system, that this government for once since 1993, since I have been in parliament, will do something positive to take some steps in the justice system that will be of benefit to Canadians. Here is an opportunity for it to do that. I hope it does not let Canadians down once again.