Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague's question is one of the most important ones. Part of the process involved in the youth criminal justice act was getting people in the room together, the victims and the people who committed the crime, to talk about what they did.
All members who have been in politics for any period of time and have dealt with constituents will notice that whenever we get involved in issues of crime and hurt we wonder how they get closure and get on with their lives. Under the system we have right now it is not easy for people to do that. They do not feel they are part of what is going on. They do not feel they have had their say or their chance to put forth what they think should happen.
Sometimes if we involve people, as we are to do with the youth criminal justice act, it works very well. It has been shown over the ages that the more we can involve victims in the process, the better they can come to some form of closure and get on with their lives. It is very difficult, especially when someone in the family is lost, when somebody is murdered or hit by a drunken driver. How do they get over that? It is not easy, but at least the victims could be part of the process.
It is not very difficult to make that happen. All of society would be better. They could get on with their lives feeling a little better. They will never feel whole again because of what they have lost, but the fact that they can be part of the process will make them feel they did the best they could for the person who is gone instead of sitting on the outside and not being part of the process.
The government did not do things in terms of parole hearings and releases. My colleague has also raised sentencing. These are issues the committee looked at. The majority of members would agree these things should be in legislation. I talked earlier about plea bargaining. I know a number of these things are within provincial jurisdiction, but our country is not that big with a little over 30 million. The Parliament of Canada could make recommendations to the provincial governments that the victims be notified of plea bargaining, sentencing, releases and parole.
I do not think there is a member in the House who would not agree, if somebody has escaped from jail, a murder, rapist or any violent offender, that his victim should be notified. We would all agree with that. It is not here and it is unfortunate because it should be here. It shows the arrogance of a government that does not listen to its committees in the House of Commons.
I read in the paper that one of our New Democrat colleagues is leaving to go into provincial politics. I will not mention what he said about his party because that would be unkind, but I will mention what he said about parliament. I tend to agree with him that the committees in the House are not working properly and that members should be able to go to committee knowing they are doing what is best for Canada from their point of view from whatever region they live in.
I agree with that member that parliament is becoming more irrelevant because of the dictatorial means of the government of the day. There is too much power in the PMO. There is too much control of what goes on in this place.
Members should be allowed to debate freely and openly and get their points of view across. They should be able to go to a committee, which they did, and talk about doing something with the bill in the areas of sentencing, escapes and plea bargaining. All those things were discussed in committee. Members from all parties agreed. Yet there is not one mention of those items in the bill. That is unfortunate. That has to change before parliament changes for the better.