Madam Speaker, this is possibly the strangest bill I have ever had anything to do with in the eight years I have had the privilege of serving the people of Kootenay—Columbia.
As the solicitor general critic I am fully aware of the consequences of the bill. It will be used basically as a highly sophisticated sieve to be able to look at countless billions of dollars of transactions literally on a daily basis. The bill is a highly sophisticated response to a highly sophisticated problem.
In one presentation during the course of our committee work the law enforcement people showed us a graph with three different pictures. When we first looked at it, it appeared as though there was a yellow sun approximately 30 inches in diameter and there were some notations around its perimeter.
When we looked very closely at it, we realized they were all simply lines. It was much like taking the wrapping off a golf ball and looking at how the elastic band was wound on it. Another section showed a bit closer that indeed they were lines, but they were so complex that it was difficult to perceive any kind of pattern.
A smaller section was blown up to the same size as the original sun and we could see the number of transactions by organized crime they had traced in this one instance to take a look at the money coming in from illegal activities that are dragging down society such as drugs, prostitution and so on. Those activities were detailed in the study by this law enforcement organization. Of everything I saw, the graph was the most graphic illustration of what we are discussing today.
We now have the ability because of the power of computers to enact all sorts of transactions and exceptionally sophisticated transactions on the part of organized crime.
I have been exceptionally critical, and I think rightfully so, of the solicitor general, the finance minister, the Prime Minister and the government for the fact that they have strangled the ability of law enforcement agencies in Canada to come even close to the level of sophistication of which even the most rudimentary organized crime units are capable.
It is not only organized crime. We are also talking about the laundering of money, much of which ends up sticking to the fingers of people involved in terrorism. The new immigrants to Canada, the people who come here to help us build our great nation, the people who see the opportunity and seize it, are most disadvantaged by the fact that the Liberal government consistently strangles the ability of law enforcement to get to the bottom of terrible terrorist organizations that not only plague the world but indeed individuals in Canada.
The speed by which the legislation is going through the House today and over the last couple of days is well warranted. It is something we desperately need to do, but we put that against the fact that over the last three years the government has dillied and dallied. It has dragged its feet and has not got around to giving us the necessary legislation. In just a second I will describe the process that led up to the point where the government finally brought the legislation to the House of Commons.
Unfortunately the legislation has been subjected to crass opportunism on the part of the Liberal government which sees this Chamber and the work of the people here as being worthy of nothing more than being treated as though it were a rubber stamp, as though we do not have a function in the process.
I was elected in my constituency not just to represent the people there. Along with the other 300 members in the House of Commons, we were collectively elected to come here to work on behalf of the people of Canada. I find it absolutely appalling that the government continuously treats the opposition and this Chamber as though it was a matter of yet another rubber stamp.
I can give an example. I am deeply concerned that the bill will be so egregiously flawed that we will run into the problems in two, three or four years after the bill is enacted and the centre gets going. We will find all sorts of flaws because of the terribly bad process it has gone through.
We have spoken during report stage about the number of things that were going on in the background. First, we ended up with negotiations between all parties on a work schedule. The government will say that the work schedule for the committee was on the basis that we would be hearing witnesses up to a particular point. The hearing of witnesses was to close at 5.30 p.m. one day and at 9 a.m. the next day we would start clause by clause consideration.
For those who are not familiar with how bills go through the House of Commons, clause by clause is exactly that. Every law is made up of any number of clauses to a bill. The number of clauses can be as few as two or three. In most instances there are 100 or more clauses to a bill. Those describe in great detail so that judges, law enforcement officials and interested Canadians can see what the intent was of the people in this Chamber with respect to any kind of legislation.
When we go through clause by clause on any bill there is the government side and, depending on how contentious the bill may be, there is the opposition that will then debate each word, each parse, each phrase and each piece of punctuation to make sure that it is indeed the way the government wants it. Of course at the end of the day the government will prevail. That is the parliamentary process.
What happened in this instance was we had a number of very interesting witnesses who gave all of us pause for concern. They made us stop and realize that we have to make sure that our Canadian legislation reflects the values within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A witness, a law enforcement official from the U.K., gave us illustrations. I asked him some questions about his illustrations on what was being done in the U.K. We very clearly discovered that if we are going to have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, every piece of legislation has to match it. Therefore the bill was working around the restrictions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that many of our ancestors or relatives of our ancestors currently living in the U.K. do not have to work around. We realize in every jurisdiction in all of the G-7 countries and any of the signatories to any of the agreements with respect to money laundering that there will be different platforms that legislation will be working from.
We listened to different professional agencies. We listened to businesses that were going to be affected by the legislation. We had some very thoughtful presentations from most of the presenters. One or two of the presenters we collectively found were a bit over the top but that is fine. That is their right and their privilege to come before us in committee.
Against the 2,000 or 3,000 lawyers the government has in the justice department, the solicitor general's department, the finance department, every government department, against the 2,000 lawyers the government has on its side who could be taking apart this testimony, the official opposition has one lawyer. Count him. There is one lawyer who is basically responsible for three different ministries, that is 2,000 to one in terms of strength.
I acknowledge that the work schedule was agreed to by all parties, my party included, but when we came to the conclusion of this process it was very evident that the work schedule was no longer workable. That we were going to be hearing witnesses at 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday and at nine o'clock in the morning on Thursday we were supposed to be prepared to do clause by clause study was clearly and specifically unworkable. I drew that to the attention of the parliamentary secretary.
In good faith I went to that committee session. My colleague from Charlesbourg went to that meeting. We both basically said that we needed more time. The member from Sarnia who was at the meeting actually put forward a motion that we needed to have time over the two week parliamentary break when members are at home working with their constituents. That period of time would give our lawyer an opportunity to take a look at the testimony and to parse it to see how it related to all of the clauses.
The government saw fit to vote down the motion put forward by the member from Sarnia over the objections of three members of the opposition. Therefore we did not take part in the clause by clause study. The reason I did not take part in the clause by clause study was that quite candidly I was not prepared. I have not received counsel. This is an exceptionally complex bill. I say again it is going to screen countless billions and billions of currency in and out of Canada. I wanted to be prepared. There was no way I could be prepared.
Let us fast forward to bringing this matter to the Chamber yesterday. What a disgraceful display that was. This was brought into the Chamber yesterday while we were still in the process of discussions. As a matter of fact I recall the clerk at the table stood to introduce Group No. 1 and the Speaker at the time began to read the motions. We were all running back to our seats halfway through negotiations as to how we were going to be handling the various amendments.
We got into the process and then the Liberals ended up discussing things with the Bloc Quebecois, which is entirely their privilege. I do not think much of that myself but I do think very much of the fact that I represent Her Majesty's Official Opposition. We were left out of any discussions of that type. All of a sudden the government was presenting motions to the Chair which the Chair could not receive.
I say for the third or fourth time this bill is basically responsible for acting like a highly sophisticated sieve involving countless billions of dollars on a daily basis and we are running around giving motions from the Government of Canada that the Chair cannot receive. It is no wonder I asked that the debate be adjourned. It was only logical. It gave the government an opportunity to get a breather.
What a disgraceful display for a government of a G-7 nation to come forward with this kind of vital legislation and to do it in such a slipshod way. It has been the height of folly. It has been absolutely frustrating to try to perform my duties on behalf of Her Majesty's Official Opposition when we have seen this type of chewing gum and baling wire.
As I pointed out on Group No. 3 that was just passed, again the government member from Sarnia presented a motion to amend the bill as written. That is what can happen at report stage, just so the people who are not familiar with the parliamentary process understand. That motion actually had some merit. I think it would have strengthened the bill not in a large way but certainly in a small way, and for something as sophisticated as this bill every little small part helps.
What happened? The member included a phrase that unfortunately was unworkable. The phrase would have caused a situation where the centre that will be doing the work would have to reveal far too much detail in public, and I understand that. My understanding in conversation with the member from Sarnia is that there had been agreement that he would agree to the removal of that phrase.
My colleague from Charlesbourg for his own very good reasons brought forward an amendment. He wanted to remove the word “government” and insert the word “parliament” thereby freezing the Senate out of the ability of being involved in the five year review of this. This is important.
Had the government been on the ball, and I drew it to the attention of certain government members at the time, and had it inserted the amendment to the motion by the member from Sarnia and then my colleague had put his subamendment, we could have had that improvement to the legislation in the bill. This just happened within the last hour.
Instead the government was remiss and did not do that. As a consequence, as we voted down the amendment by the member for Charlesbourg, we closed off the ability to make the necessary amendment for that improvement to the bill. I just despair for this process.
I have not been involved in a lot of the legislation that has gone through the House in terms of shepherding it through the House for Her Majesty's Official Opposition. I have not been as involved in the detail. Heaven forbid that the the process on every piece of legislation is as messed up as the process that was involved in this piece of legislation has been.
I recognize we are reaching the time when the Speaker will tell us it is time for members' statements. I will want to complete my speech following question period. I will conclude this portion without talking about the substance of the bill, which I will happily do following question period.
I state again that I have the greatest feeling of despair for this piece of legislation because of the fatally flawed process through which it has rumbled through this Chamber. This is where the Senate does come in. God bless their souls over there. They do have the ability to take a look at this legislation. Hopefully they will not go through as badly flawed a process.
The government now wants to get this bill through like greased lightning and wants to get this bill enacted finally after three years. I would hope that if the Senate comes forward with meaningful amendments the government will not take those as hostile and that we will not be involved in another seriously flawed process in the event that the bill ends up coming back from the Senate.