Madam Speaker, they ask how many sides I have sat on. I have been on one side, the right side, not the left side. I know it really upsets them when we have good ideas. The people sitting on the backbench on that side are not allowed to have any ideas. They have to rubber stamp what comes from the front row.
It was very nice to see my Liberal friend from Scarborough East get up this morning and say that this bill was not a good bill and he could not vote for it. I hope a few others on that side do the same.
Finally, all supreme court decisions should be reviewed to see if they gibe with the intent of the laws passed by this parliament.
I spoke earlier about the rush to get this legislation to parliament. One has to really wonder about the Liberals' sense of priority and condemn their manipulation of the events that take place.
Here we have a country which has been in limbo for over a year on the issue of child pornography. Despite the minister promising to act swiftly and decisively on the issue, we will wait around probably for another six months or more before we have a decision. Where is the justice minister on that issue?
The minister and the government refused all attempts by the opposition to have the notwithstanding clause invoked to reinstate the possession of child pornography as an offence. Sixty-four government members wanted to use that too but they voted against it when the Prime Minister said so. They saw no urgency in protecting our children from pedophiles who perpetrate this perverted behaviour. They ignored a petition with 500,000 signatures calling for reinstatement of the law.
It is amazing how the Liberals jump to attention for other groups. What is more of a priority, same sex benefits or protecting innocent young children? We will see how quickly the minister acts on this issue if the law is struck down by the supreme court. Will it be a priority then? That will be a big issue in the House.
Other criminal justice issues cry out for attention. Surely the conditional sentencing mess requires attention. Surely the issue of drugs in prisons and the proliferation of drug use and its terrible social consequences are very much priority issues.
It took the minister three years before we got her to act on young offenders. It took her three years on young offenders. She can sure study things to death.
Last summer we finally got around to the issue of impaired driving. How many years did that take? We await the finalization of this initiative. It is on the Order Paper, but obviously same sex benefits is more of a priority.
The minister made a big issue about her animal abuse bill last December. It was so important. Where is it now? It got the PR, it got the flack, but where is it now? Same sex legislation took over from that. It was good politics at the time, but it currently is not so important now that certain lobby groups are appeased for the moment.
This opportunism is truly the hallmark of the Liberal government. Everything is put on a back burner so the government can play politics in its feeble attempt to deflect attention from the real issues of the day.
Another bill, proceeds of crime, languishes on the Order Paper. Of all criminal justice issues confronting this nation, the minister drops everything because the supreme court sets the agenda for her.
Organized crime has become the single greatest threat to Canada's sovereignty according to those who fight crime for a living, the policemen. They tell us that organized crime has become the biggest single threat to Canada's sovereignty. What are we doing about it? We passed the motion in the House. I have not seen the other side coming to this side and saying let us get that committee going. Let us get that before the House of Commons. No, no. The House agreed unanimously to look at organized crime. We have done nothing about it since it was passed in the House because it is not a priority of the government.
The breadth and scope of organized crime is immense. It has penetrated any area where there is an illegal dollar to be made. Would the minister consider this a priority? It certainly does not seem so.
Over the weekend Toronto's new chief of police had some advice for the minister and judges on what are the priority issues in Canada. Allow me to elaborate. He said “Kids are vulnerable to sexual predators, pornographers and the dangers of a life of crime”. He went on to say that legislators and judges should get a reality check on life itself. This man is the chief of police of the largest city in Canada and knows what he is doing. I will repeat that. He said that the legislators and judges should get a reality check on life itself. Is that not a message that everybody in the House should take seriously? We have to have reality checks and we are not getting them from the other side.
He further indicated on the issue of child pornography and Robin Sharpe that Canada has been made the subject of international scorn and ridicule. To quote the police chief, he said, “I can tell you with a whole lot of shame that even third world countries are more civilized and conscientious about our duty as adults to protect the most vulnerable components of society, our children”. The chief of police said that third world countries are better than we are at protecting the vulnerabilities of our children. As I said before, where are the minister's priorities?
Chief Fantino cites drugs, prisons and organized crime as requiring our attention. Chief Fantino says that Canada is known as a country where crime really does pay. Canada, he says, has a reputation as a country that is soft on crime and that those who come here from elsewhere to pursue their criminal activities have little fear.
Is that not scary? Those who come here from other countries to commit crimes have little fear. This is from the man who is leading the police force in the largest city in Canada. I am sure the chiefs of police of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and all across the country would agree with the chief of police of Toronto. He says that it is a scathing indictment on our criminal justice system. This really should give the minister pause and impetus to get down to the real issues.
According to Fantino, south of the border Canada is seen as a sort of strainer leaking from a thousand holes. He asks if it is any wonder that even deported criminals and undesirables keep on coming back. And boy, with our immigration system we let them right back across the border as soon as they come.
Alas, instead of attacking real and substantive issues, the minister plays defence for the Minister of Human Resources Development.
Bill C-23 is a convenient smokescreen to get the government off the hook. Instead of supporting the call for more assistance to police to fight crime, the minister chooses to send the sex police into the bedrooms of the nation. As I said earlier, a former prime minister of this country said that the government has no place in the bedrooms of anyone in this nation. Would he not be ashamed of this government bringing in legislation that gets involved in the bedrooms of the nation? I am sure he is today.
This bedroom bill, and it is a bedroom bill, will not deflect the attention away from the human resources debacle. It is shameful that the government would be so manipulative.
This morning the minister said that if parliament does not settle the issue, the courts will. What kind of leadership is that in a country? If parliament does not settle the issue, the courts will.
We have other dependent relationships and the minister said we will have to look at those. We will look at those and we will start to travel the country. Why did we not do it before we brought this bill in? Why try to be divisive in the country and leave other people outside the fence? We should be united in the country. As a parliament we should be working properly to do everything that is good for all Canadians, not just any special groups in Canada.