Mr. Speaker, I think it would be a good thing go back to the motion itself, which reads as follows:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government has failed to deliver criminal justice programs and laws that reflect the will and concerns of the majority of Canadians, including issues like child pornography, young offenders, impaired driving, conditional sentencing, drug trafficking, home invasions, police funding, consecutive sentencing, corrections facilities and illegal immigration, and as a consequence, have put individual safety, and in some cases national security, in jeopardy.
One is forced to conclude that this motion was prompted, as I said earlier, by amendments to the Young Offenders Act, among other things, but that it is also a reaction to the shocking case in British Columbia relating to child pornography.
I have some misgivings about the misconceptions this implies. The motion is based solely on perceptions, on emotions, on exceptions, and on the misinformation the Reform Party has been involved with ever since 1993, as justification for its desire to make some extremely significant changes, to the Young Offenders Act in particular.
I am not saying today that everything is rosy and wonderful and that we have the best system in the world. That is not the case. All systems need to be modernized and improved. There are areas where the government does not perform and should. There are vitally important areas where the Liberal government does nothing and should do something.
More dollars are laundered in this country than anywhere else in the world. What is the federal government doing about it? Absolutely nothing. We are proud to be the country laundering the most dollars. It would be easy to intervene. The government could simply outlaw the use of $1,000 bills, as the Bloc Quebecois member for Charlesbourg has been suggesting for a while now. Nothing is happening.
Epic battles had to be waged here to get the Liberal government to pass minor legislation on gangs. It does not go as far as we would like. It is not right for criminal gangs to call the shots as they are doing across the country without any intervention and the heads of the gangs being caught.
Certain laws protecting public security contain weaknesses. In terms of police services funding, the government could certainly put more money into prevention. Then there is the victims element.
There must be compliance with the Canadian Constitution as well. Odd to hear this from the mouth of a Bloc member, but there is a Canadian Constitution, and the people in this House do not appear to really know what it is about. It sets out responsibilities. But, as the Bloc member pointed out, not even the government complies with the Constitution, intervening in provincial areas of jurisdiction. Perhaps it should set an example.
The bottom line is that there is room for improvement in the system, but perhaps we should not expect to amend the Criminal Code or the Young Offenders Act by debating this kind of motion, or by citing specific cases that have made the headlines.
The Young Offenders Act is something I take a great interest in. I am familiar with the Young Offenders Act because a consensus was reached in Quebec. Efforts to address youth crime have been going on for 25 or 30 years. Lawyers, criminologists and specialists fought just as hard with the Government of Quebec of 25 or 30 years ago as they did with the federal government to bring about the structure we have today, and all stakeholders are proud of their achievement.
Members will surely understand my mistrust with respect to any sort of amendment to a bill that could undermine Quebec's approach to youth crime.
When I see this sort of à la carte legislation being proposed, when I see legislation purporting to be very flexible, according to the Minister of Justice and her parliamentary secretary, legislation that each province could enforce as it saw fit, I wonder. Why does the federal government want a Young Offenders Act then? Why does it not withdraw completely and leave the provinces with full jurisdiction over youth crime?
Quebec would immediately praise such a move on the part of the Minister of Justice, if she had the courage to make it. But I am afraid this is not about to happen. The whole thing is a smokescreen. It is not true that the new way of doing things with regard to criminal justice is as flexible as the government would have us believe to get Quebec to shut up, as federalists often try to do.