Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure today to speak to Bill C-79. I will take some time to give the House and those watching an idea of the history of victims rights in the House of Commons, where they came from and why they got here.
To some extent the government is misleading people in Canada. I hear time and time again the government's initiative on victims rights, that it has done such a wonderful thing. It is a bit of a sad tale to tell because it is really not true. It was never initiated by the Liberal government. In fact it was done in spite of the Liberal government, quite frankly, and I will show that today.
I do not want to dwell too long on that. We can thank the victims and those who were involved with them for all their hard work to get it to this point. Much more needs to be done yet, and we have to talk about that as well.
In 1993 when I first became a member of parliament I talked with many victims of crime. I remember being in the living room of Chris and Sue Simmonds, talking to two people who were very heart broken at their daughter's murder and wondering how they were ever going to get through such a legal industry and such a morass of difficulties on top of one thing after another.
It was more after the death of their daughter that they were so coldly treated by the system. I began to wonder even then in 1993, early in my stages of involvement in it, just why that was, why victims were so poorly treated in our society when it seemed the criminal had so many rights.
I began a fairly long and arduous exercise to find out more about the system. I attended many court trials. I spoke with victims across the country. I spent a great deal of time looking at prisoners rights and trying to compare prisoners rights to victims rights.
In 1994 I initially wrote the national victims bill of rights and presented it as a private member's bill. We looked at it and asked what we really wanted and how to get from there. All along victims rights groups were growing and growing and speaking out and speaking out. Yet nothing seemed to get done.
We brought the issue to the House of Commons many times during 1995 and 1996. It was difficult to have a debate on it because the Liberal government actually did not have an understanding of what we were looking for as politicians and what victims were really looking for.
I want to show what I mean by that. I recall asking the justice minister of the day many questions about victims rights. The answers he gave us were perplexing. In fact one of the comments of the justice minister was that the Reform Party was exploiting the very tragedies it pretended to decry. It hurt a great deal when he said that to me, in particular, because that was not what it was about. There was no exploitation at all. We were merely carrying a message forward. We see today that there is victims rights legislation, so those kinds of rhetorical, hard crusted comments by the government were needless and were quite unfair.
The minister made another comment on March 11, 1997. He said that the importance he placed on their experience, the importance he placed on respecting victims, was reflected in the many pieces of legislation they had brought forward in the House to protect and safeguard the position of victims in the criminal justice system. They were talking about gun bills, the Young Offenders Act and all kinds of other bills, but they were not addressing the issue. The issue is victims rights.
After we developed a national victims bill of rights, I can recall that in my town of Abbotsford, B.C., we had a rally in 1995. One of the speakers at that rally was my colleague from Surrey North. He was not elected then. There were about 2,200 people there. The message became clearer and clearer to Ottawa that there was a growing problem, a growing need for more rights for victims, always comparing it to the rights of criminals. That was the largest rally of its time. It told us a lot about that growing movement, much of it due to the hard work and dedication of the victims themselves and victims rights groups.
We continued to raise questions in the House of Commons about it in 1995 and 1996. There was still not an understanding by the government. Late in 1995 I took a motion to the Reform Party assembly and it was overwhelmingly endorsed. It is now a part of our principles and policies that victims rights should be front and centre and should have certain principles involved in them. We moved it on from there. We had more questions in the House of Commons, but there still was not quite an understanding of what needed to be done.
On April 29, 1996, we tabled a motion in the House to get the work started on a national victims bill of rights. The justice minister and I had a great debate on that day. To my surprise he actually admitted at that point that we needed to do something.
From there it went to committee. I can recall being with victims in the justice committee who presented what had to be done. We were basically all on side at that point.
It was a difficult job convincing members on opposite side. When they stand to say we should look at what they have done for us, they should first thank us for teaching them, thank the victims who showed us as well, and look at what we are helping them do. That would be a much better approach.
I want to talk briefly about what was originally in the victims bill of rights. There are some who say that some of this is provincial so we should not deal with it. Personally I think that is hogwash, particularly since I had commitments in the House, and I can produce them, that the government was prepared to talk to the provinces about those other issues which were administratively their responsibility and to get them at least committed to the point where we were consistent across the country. That is one of the greatest problems in the country. From Newfoundland, to Nova Scotia, to British Columbia there are different processes. That does not help victims.
One of the first things we wanted to do was to define what a victim was. I understand that the committee is looking at talking about about that later. I am not interested in talking about it later. We should be talking about it now. Originally we defined a victim as any one who suffered as a result of an offence physical or mental injury or economic loss; or any spouse, sibling, child or parent of the individual against whom the offence was perpetrated; or anyone who had an equivalent relationship, not necessarily a blood relative.
We have to relook at the definition of a victim in the Criminal Code and all our documents. That job cannot be set aside today or tomorrow for expediency. They cannot tell us to look at what they have done, that the victims legislation is done and that the rest of it can be forgotten until some other day. We have to look at it now and be proactive on these issues.
Another right victims should have had was written into the original national victims bill of rights, that they should be informed of their rights at every stage of the process including those rights involving compensation from the offender. They must also be made aware of any available victim services. I hear again that is a provincial jurisdiction. That may be so but it does not exclude the House of Commons from saying that it will attempt to do its very best to work with provincial organizations to try to make it consistent across the country.
Another one of those rights was to be informed of the offender's status throughout the process including but not restricted to notification of any arrests, upcoming court dates, sentencing dates, plans to release the offender from custody, conditions of release, parole dates, et cetera. All information was to be made available upon request.
Some say that is provincial jurisdiction. Some say that it is the CRA, the Conditional Release Act. I suggest the House take seriously the issues which victims are concerned about and make a commitment in the legislation that something will be done.
How do we do that? We can make an appendix to any legislation we wish. We can make a commitment in the House of Commons. We can put it in a throne speech, which will likely be coming up next fall. All kinds of commitments can be made. Judging from my six years of experience in the House of Commons, without these commitments it will not get done.
I believe it necessary to go through a couple of the things we were looking for in a national victims bill of rights which are not in this legislation and which this government really has to pursue.
The first would be the right to be informed on a timely basis of the details of the crown's intention to offer a plea bargain before it is presented to the defence. I cannot tell the House how many times I have spoken with people who have been absolutely flabbergasted by the fact that plea bargains or deals were made when they had no idea they were being made. Some would say, the technocrats I suppose, that it is provincial jurisdiction.
The fact of the matter is, we can do more with the provinces. The justice minister meets with the attorneys general of every province every year. Commitments can be obtained. To say that we cannot do it because it is within someone else's jurisdiction is wrong.
Another right is the right to know why charges were not laid, if that is the decision of the crown or the police. Some say again that it is within provincial jurisdiction, but if we talk to victims they will say “Will someone please make up their mind? Could we please get help?” Is it not our duty in the House of Commons to at least try to convince provinces on a wholesale basis to undertake these commitments?
We need protection from anyone who intimidates, harasses or interferes with the rights of the victim. We must have the police follow through on domestic violence charges. Once a victim files a complaint the police should have the authority to follow it through to the end. Do not tell me that this is a police problem and that we are not responsible in the House of Commons. If we adopt a head in the sand approach in the House of Commons in trying to get consistency across this nation, then more victims will suffer.
The last issue we had written in the national victims bill of rights way back in 1994 was to know if the person convicted of a sexual offence has a sexually transmittable disease. That seems reasonable to me. I have dealt with two individuals who have had that problem. One young lady was raped by an individual who finally was deported. He would not give consent to be medically tested, so he never was.
Those are the kinds of rights we need in this country. I will not be satisfied in saying that we have done all we can, the rest is up to the provinces, or the rest will come in another bill. I do not think that is practical. I think we have to do all we can, whenever we can, whatever the jurisdiction.
Way back in 1994 and 1995 when I was involved in this there were a lot of people who went the extra mile to fight for victims rights. It is necessary to thank people like Ron and Corrine Schaefer. Corrine's sister Angela was murdered. Corrine is now a member of CAVEAT and has done a lot of good, hard work. Both of them have been and still are avid supporters of CAVEAT.
Chris and Sue Simmonds initially helped tremendously in drafting and reviewing the national victims bill of rights.
Gary and Sharon Rosenfeldt are people I have met along the way, sincere people who are doing the very best they can to improve the rights of victims in this country.
I should also mention Bula, who has had a very tough time as a victim. She was sexually molested by an individual who was allowed out of a prison on a day pass. That individual had 63 prior convictions. These are courageous people.
I should also mention Heather Fougere and Gail and Terry Smith. Heather and Dean are the aunt and uncle of Tanya Smith who was murdered in my town of Abbotsford. They have now joined the ranks of victims, which is sad to say, but they are also turning a negative into a positive in doing the very best they can to improve things in Canada.
I also want to thank Rosalie Turcotte from Mission, British Columbia. I want to thank Rosie from Windsor, Ontario, whom I spent a great deal of time with when preparing a private member's bill which dealt with prisoners changing their names.
All of these people and many more deserve much more than just some things in victims legislation. I very much encourage this House to do more. We should not stop here.
I want to talk about a rally that is going to occur which will shake this nation out of its complacency. The rally will consist of grassroots people from all over this country who will bring the issue of drugs to the House of Commons.
On May 27 we intend to hold a very large rally in my riding. The theme of the rally will be “Drugs: Are You Ready to Fight?” I would encourage members of the House on both sides to consider this very serious issue.
I have gone through the national drug strategy of the Liberal government. I have been on the streets in many difficult situations where drugs are everywhere. When we talk to the people on the streets who are trying to help, they look at the national drug strategy that the government has produced—and I am not belittling the government—and they say it is not helping on the street, that this is rhetorical stuff, that these dollars do not reach the street.