Madam Speaker, the member mentioned how pleased she was that we have an independent judiciary. The fact is that many of our judiciary are political patronage appointees, especially at the higher levels. They are clearly setting out to accomplish a social engineering agenda and the public does not like it.
As the member mentioned, she can be held accountable by the voters. She has the opportunity to defend her record and to ask her constituents to return her to this place. That is exactly why Reform has suggested a more transparent and open process of appointing judges. There really should be a system that more publicly examines a person who is going to be in a judiciary position so the public can have confidence in that person's ability to be totally independent.
Frankly I think perhaps a lot of the judges like the rule where they cannot defend themselves because they cannot defend themselves. They cannot defend the decisions they make, as being completely out of touch with the community standards.
I have sat in the courts in North Vancouver and I have seen plenty of decisions made that are completely out of touch with the community standards. The people in the court have almost booed at what has been done there. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. It is as if the judges have become desensitized over time because they have seen so much crime in their courts.
I refer the member to the case of New York which had a zero tolerance policy. Taking care of the small things automatically takes care of the big things. If there is a zero tolerance for small crimes, the big crimes do not happen.
Finally, with respect to the aboriginal affairs situation, around 250 Squamish band members have contacted me in relation to Bill C-49. As part of that process a number of them submitted to me budgets of the Squamish band. In one social services part of that band budget which is supposed to look after children, the budget is $1.5 million and almost $900,000 of it is used on administration. The band members are complaining about it because it is not flowing to the people who should be getting the help.
That is the point Reform is making. There is plenty of money in Indian and northern affairs. It is just not getting to the right places.