Mr. Speaker, I will be taking 20 minutes and you know I will address my comments through you. I would not be like the justice minister.
It is a pleasure to talk about this issue tonight. It is interesting the comments we get from the government side. Let me quote the justice minister today and the solicitor general tonight. The justice minister said that organized crime is the number one priority of the government.
It is ironic that it is the number one priority today, when we heard very little about it last week, last year and on and on. Why is it that with this government it seems that the number one priority begins when something moves it to move in that direction? It is really sad indeed that all of a sudden we are here in the House in a special debate when something that set it off was a reporter who was shot in the back five times in Quebec.
I remind the government that there have been things going on for years in this country that have been involved with organized crime. I remind the government that last year alone 400 people died in two cities, Vancouver and Toronto, from drug overdoses. Those drugs came from organized crime up at the top. The year before that there was well over 300 in Vancouver alone, and there is the year before that and the year before that. So why is it we are here today, the first day of the sitting of the House of Commons, in an emergency debate, when this has been an emergency for years? Yes, the government has developed laws, but they have not worked. That is the main message we are trying to get across.
I know the government is saying it will examine it and that it is studying it, but the time for study has past. This has been a problem for a long time.
Some of the responsibility for this has to lay at the feet of the government because whatever action is going to come out of this exercise could have and should have been done some time ago in my opinion. The comments from the solicitor general tonight were “We will not tolerate this”. “This is my highest priority,” he said.
We have been telling the solicitor general for years there is a serious problem in the prisons. There is a serious problem with parole. But on Monday, September 18, 2000, the highest priority is organized crime because something happened to move the government in that direction. That is not the way to run a country or a government, in a reactionary mode.
There is much talk about the Hell's Angels and the Rock Machine in Quebec. I remind the government and others listening that one only has to live around the triads in British Columbia to know how deadly a group those people are, how ruthless they are. We only have to go to Manitoba to understand what the Warriors are like. There is the Satan's Choice in Ontario, the Para-Dice Riders, the Vietnamese gangs, the Big Circle Boys and on and on they go. It is not about two groups. It would be a mistake to identify two groups in particular in the criminal code because that excludes a lot more than it includes. That is important to remember.
I would like to know why two or three years ago the government eliminated the ports police. We were told at the time it was a cost cutting measure. I spent a good deal of time with the ports police. I know the role they played on both coasts, in Halifax harbour port in particular and in Vancouver. It is interesting. Almost immediately after the ports police left Vancouver, one of the organized crime groups immediately moved into the Vancouver port and set up operations.
How does organized crime benefit? How does it expand? It expands by eliminating organizations like the ports police, or cost cutting in the RCMP. I wish I could have a debate here with the solicitor general on what the government did with the RCMP budget. It was only a year or two ago in the House when we were practically begging the government to give the RCMP money. In fact, after all that duress the solicitor general was under, he finally gave in and gave it money, which he is bragging about here tonight. That is reactionary mode. It is not good for the country.
I have some examples of what organized crime really is. I want to read them into the record for the House. People across the country will understand just how serious organized crime is.
The Big Circle Boys is another group. Triad member Wing Fu Ha was arrested in Vancouver for the murder of an infant in what police suspect was a gang rivalry incident. Wing remained in Vancouver despite an earlier deportation order against him.
I will have some recommendations a little later on what to do, but I can tell the House I have dealt with this personally as well. One of the problems with organized crime is the lack of strength and conviction of the Liberal government to deport people who break our laws. That is a fact. I just read of one of them here, a triad member. He should have been out a long time ago.
Contrary to the unanimous advice of law enforcement, the ports police were disbanded and immediately thereafter an organized crime linked company was granted docking container facilities in the port of Vancouver. The amount and quality of heroin now available in Vancouver is such that in August of 2000, heroin addicts, that is, those who have not died, marched to protest government inaction. Heroin addicts are saying there is too much heroin on the streets. That is a fact. I have been there. I have seen it. I have talked to them.
In June 1999, more than a year ago, Vancouver police cracked a heroin importation ring run by Simon Kwok, whom they identify as a member of the 14K triad group, responsible for drug importation, prostitution, credit card fraud, home invasion, and extortion of members of Vancouver's large Chinese community.
That is what an individual like that does. That is organized crime. That is reality. That hits the streets of my community every day, and everyone else's community, including Halifax, right across the country.
We know about the ongoing violent warfare between the Rock Machine and the Hell's Angels in Quebec resulting in shootings, bombings and more deaths, but here is what is not said about that. A fellow, Michel Auger, a decent individual, a professional in his own rank, gets five bullets in the back. I read that a couple of days ago in Halifax a fellow was shot twice.
Shootings like that are an everyday occurrence in the country now. What happened to the government's gun legislation? The major comment we had in the House of Commons when that legislation came in was that it would help to curb crime, but that is not the case. It has become a revenue generator.