A member says it was not just the Liberals. Yes, I believe we do have one member who is not a Liberal who did not quash this.
Why do we face the situation in the House of Commons today where all but three members of the House on second reading said yes, but when it went to committee the Liberals, who have a majority on the committee, said no? What happened? Did these very members on that committee who voted no yesterday vote yes in 1997? The answer is yes. So what happened? Only three members said no to it way back when and we had seven nixing the bill yesterday. If they cared that much about it, then what changed between the vote on second reading and a committee meeting?
I will tell hon. members what changed. The cabinet sat down and said that it never did like this bill. Cabinet members only wanted to stand in the House of Commons to tell Canadians they were all for it and then go behind closed doors to tell the chairman of the committee to scrap it.
The parliament secretary for justice was on that committee and voted against the bill yesterday. Government members sitting on that committee said “We do not give one damn what we did at second reading. We are telling you now that is not going to go”.
There are two issues here. There is the issue of criminals who perpetrate crimes, serious offences, who go to prison and get out on an unescorted leave of absence or an escorted leave of absence or parole or some form of exit from prison.