The police chiefs do not want it. Reform Party members are infamous for standing up and saying there is one police chief, one person, one child or one priest and extrapolating that to include the entire Dominion of Canada. That is absolutely ludicrous and they know it. That is what I was getting to when I said “tiresome”. It is tiresome that they would bring forth that type of logic.
In our view the objectives of the private member's bill now before the House are already well served by the tools provided by the common law principles of sentencing and legislation which is currently in place. The hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough would agree with me because he has a legal background. He knows that the Reform Party would bring into place scurrilous innuendo against the judicial system. That party is trying to tell judges exactly what to do. What is the Reform Party's agenda? If a person is not elected they do not know what they are talking about. Once again it is an attack on judges and the judicial system. My goodness gracious, I do not know how some members of the Reform Party actually got elected. I think they were appointed.
Bill C-219, an act to amend the Criminal Code, would create an indictable offence for using a stolen motor vehicle in the commission, attempted commission or flight following the commission of an offence. If found guilty, everyone who commits this indictable offence would be liable to imprisonment for a term of one year, to be served consecutively with any other punishment imposed arising out of the same offence.
What kind of gibberish is that? To begin with, it is flawed. Even the notion of the bill is flawed. The summary of the bill is flawed. Under Bill C-41, as everyone in this House knows, including the hon. member opposite, we have already looked into this. We have already done justice to this particular matter.
Why would the member want to bring up Bill C-219? Why the hon. member for Wild Rose would propose this particular piece of legislation is beyond my belief and beyond the belief of most Canadians. The way we handle justice in this country is not by throwing people in jail and throwing away the key. But that, in the infinite wisdom of the Reform Party, is the way to handle the situation.
We on this side of the House believe in rehabilitation. We do not believe in complete incarceration just for the simple reason of it. We cannot qualify it. Reform Party members know that. They know they cannot put a maximum or a minimum on sentencing. That is up to the judge's discretion. We cannot do that.