Madam Speaker, actually it is a very good question. The charter of rights and freedoms has created some problems. What I did initially before I wrote the national victims bill of rights was to look at the prison system and compare the rights of criminals to the rights of victims.
When I looked at all of the charter fights, most of them, if not all of them, were for criminals. They ended up with the right to vote. They ended up with the right to refuse work. They ended up with Canada pension plan benefits. They ended up with virtually all of the rights and even more in prisons than they had when they were outside. They had the rights, but they did not have the privileges. I think we have mixed up the rights and the privileges.
Today and in the past victims have felt like third class citizens. They have felt like some party that is outside of the exercise when it has come to going to court or any other instance they were involved in. Many a lawyer has said publicly and to me that victims have no place in the courtroom. The crime was against the crown and the lawyers have ended up outside a criminal justice system and inside a legal industry where the best buck gets the best lawyer.
Victims were basically being told to go away, to keep quiet, to say nothing, “We will deal for you, we will do all of the plea bargaining, we will do everything. Don't worry, we will look after you”. The fact is they were not being looked after. They were treated like third class citizens. That is why it has all come about. It is unfortunate.
We should all have the same rights and freedoms, with the exception of some of the rights and freedoms given to criminals in prisons. I do not agree with all that.