Mr. Speaker, the member opened by saying he would deal with an issue that scares a lot of people. Then he went on to build a whole case and to fuel the very point he was just making by trying to scare people in a very systematic and point by point way, painting the worst case situation in every possible point of view.
One of the quotes, which I would like the member to add substance to, was “put a bullet in the head of your husband and you get a reward by moving to beautiful B.C. to enjoy the mountains and the oceans”. I have to ask him, after I am finished my remarks, to comment on that and to flesh that out a little because it does not make any sense to me.
The whole issue of criminal justice and inner city safety is something I deal with every day. I represent a riding in the inner city of Winnipeg that is rife with many of the problems touched on by the member.
What strikes me is how there can be the same set of circumstances and two completely different views of how to deal with it. We have heard Reform over the years, even prior to my coming here, on caning in Singapore. That was one of my favourites. Spanky and his gang was the term going around at that time. I understand he is an expert on the subject. He even had a book on caning in Singapore.
During the 1997 election campaign when I was walking along the streets I could always tell when I was following the Reform candidate because people would be asking me about boot camps that would be introduced based on the American model. Reform is still advocating and promoting the whole idea of boot camps. This is unbelievable.
And longer prison sentences. All conventional wisdom dealing with criminal justice has indicated that longer prison sentences do not do anything to deter the incidence of crime. Reform members are dealing with an obsolete concept and fueling the fearmongering.
In the United States a whole generation of young black males were locked up because they were a nuisance. Yes, they got them off the streets and the Americans are showing a decrease in crime. I would argue that there is no connection between those two things. The reason there is a decrease in violent crime in many of the inner city communities is that they have the lowest unemployment rate since the second world war. That is a way to slow down property crimes. Crimes of that nature are a predictable consequence of poverty and unemployment and all of the other things we need to look at. There are two different views for the same set of circumstances. The NDP would rather deal with the root causes of crime.
What does the member mean by stating that by putting a bullet in the head of her husband the woman gets rewarded by moving to beautiful British Columbia, which again is a subject of opinion, and enjoying the mountains and the ocean?