Madam Speaker, I am honoured to enter the debate on this justice issue brought forward by the hon. member for Saint-Bruno—Saint Hubert.
We are discussing once again the issue of justice and sentencing. I vacillate back and forth between the whole concept of holding people accountable for their actions in a meaningful way while at the same time upholding a very important principle in which I strongly believe. The principle I am talking about is our justice system, which in all aspects should be based on the principle that it is the safety of law-abiding citizens which should take pre-eminence in all cases. I also very firmly believe that if the rights of a victim and the rights of an accused collide, then the rights of the victim should take precedence.
I think this motion was brought forth today out of a sense of frustration with our justice system in Canada. I do not want to particularly pick on the current Minister of Justice, since I do not think the situation was substantially better under the previous minister. The way the justice system works in Canada is very seriously flawed. We have a minister who, unfortunately, does not respond well to issues which are very important to Canadians.
We have more than 500,000 names on petitions asking the government to do something with respect to the possession of child pornography. The Minister of Justice simply wrings her hands and says “I cannot do anything”. Canadians do not understand that. They do not like it and they have expressed that to me.
I mentioned in an earlier speech today that I spent a number of hours at trade fairs in two of the major centres in my riding in the last couple of weeks. One of the issues that came up over and over was the issue of child pornography. I can see my colleague being motivated to bring forward her motion when the minister does not respond to issues such as child pornography. The member is really bypassing the minister with her motion.
At the present time the annual report of the correctional investigator is tabled in the House by the minister. It is required by statute that the report be tabled in the House so that it will be available to all of us. Consequently, the minister can sit on it and forget about it. There is never a requirement to actually act on any of the recommendations. I can understand the member's frustration.
I feel bad about this because I know this motion has come forward from correct motivation. I wish the member had worded it a little differently, because then I would have supported it quite heartily. However, I have a real concern with a motion which lets a correctional officer prepare a report with recommendations that are binding on the House.
When we actually so arrange our affairs, we are in danger that parliament will not be supreme. We have already done that thanks to former Prime Minister Trudeau who brought in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with its overriding control over future parliaments. We have lost our autonomy. We no longer have a parliament that can pass a law based on the majority in a democratic process either of our people or of our representatives in the House.
If I am reading this motion right, the primary flaw that I see is that the motion would further erode the supremacy of parliament. I am sure the hon. member will correct me during her last five minute speech if I am wrong.
The way I read it, the motion states, and I quote, “recommendations would be binding rather than simple recommendations”. It means that the recommendations made in that report to parliament would not be debated or passed by the House. If they were, there would be no choice but to adopt those recommendations. I think that would be unwise.
Undoubtedly many of the recommendations would be valid and would carry the support, but if there were recommendations that were not supported by the majority of either our citizens or, by projection, their representatives in this place, then we ought not to allow yet another individual or small committee somewhere out there, that is neither elected nor accountable, to dictate to Canadians how the conditional system works. As I see it, that is the most serious flaw in the motion.
I would, however, like to say that we need to seriously look at the whole question of sentencing and we need to have better feedback.
I happen to have a major institution located a few miles from the boundary of my riding. Many of the people who work at that institution live in my riding. They live in the towns of Fort Saskatchewan, Gibbons or Bon Accord. They work at that institution and they express their concerns to me. Many of the things that happen in Correctional Service Canada are not really geared toward the protection of citizens they way they ought to be.
I commend the hon. member for bringing this motion forward. I certainly sympathize with her frustration with the system. We do need to look at the way this reporting should be done. However, it would have been better if she had moved a motion that said that those recommendations must be dealt with in the House within a certain length of time and that a subsequent vote on those recommendations would be a free vote, as Private Members' Business is. Perhaps that would have been a better way to accomplish the goals she is seeking.