Mr. Speaker, on those comments I would not know where to start. There are so many issues that could be addressed.
Suffice it to say that in every situation there are difficult decisions for our judiciary. Unlike many people who have spoken and the comments I have heard over the last year, I have respect for the judiciary. I am very grateful that in Canada we have due process of law.
Many I would call moves to shortcuts to make life easier. If someone was charged in our household we would want full due process of law and every opportunity for a proper defence. At the end of the system we would want proper sanctioning.
Proper sanctioning has nothing to do with length of sentence. It has to do with obtaining a result that will be better for the safety of the community and which will work toward a rehabilitation of the individual.
Public safety and security is of utmost importance. One of the ways this is accomplished is through rehabilitation. The reality is that most offenders will get out of the system. At the end of the day as a society, do we want them better functioning when they leave than when they went in, or do we just want them hardened and bitter and without hope? At the end of the day they are going to be members of our society.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General commented earlier about how useful the parole system is in having some limitation on whom people can engage with, where they must report to, where they live. These are safeguards that are in the system. If we checked the recidivism rates, we would actually see that where there are no parole systems in place, the small percentage of people where there is no parole provision, they are the ones who are more likely to reoffend.
The hon. member has asked something about which I could talk for hours addressing all of those situations. Suffice it to say that I have a lot of faith in our democratic judicial system, a democracy supporting an independent judicial system. I certainly would never want to see elections for judges. I believe that there is not a justice in this country appointed to the bench who was not qualified.