Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for its indulgence. It may be quicker than four minutes.
I would like to thank the several people who brought the bill to this stage. The member for Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca, who is a medical doctor, has done so much to promote this cause. Both he and I had very similar bills in the private members' hopper at the same time. It was the luck of the draw that mine was picked. It could just as well have been his bill we are voting on today. He certainly deserves at least half of the credit for what has gone on here, both for his expertise in drafting his bill, which again was very similar to mine, and for being a champion for this cause. I want to thank him personally for that.
I would also like to thank Isobel Anderson, who is a member of an Ontario police force. She is someone who has done a lot of service in highlighting the problem. She had a needle stick injury that put her and her family at risk. She pointed out the emotional trauma she went through and how unnecessary it was. The street person who could have infected her gave a blood sample to the medical practitioner in exchange for a hamburger. Her life was changed because a person accepted that exchange. It is just not fair and it is not right that someone's life goes on hold because someone else wants something to eat or is willing to trade that information for something as mundane as a hamburger. She pointed that out. She has done a great service on behalf of all of the people who work in emergency services by showing that laws needed to be changed.
I would like to thank a young man from my riding who, as a good Samaritan helped to arrest and hold someone who had stolen something from the Canadian Tire store where he worked. This 18 year old young man exemplified the best of our community's ideals. He put himself at risk to enforce the laws of the land and to do what is right. He went through six months of treatment with chemical cocktails because the person who was apprehended would not give a blood sample. That young man gave of himself for all of us. I want to thank him and his family for what they have been through.
I am pleased to report that now, after three years, that young man has no sign of any long term infection. He was fortunate, even considering the trauma he went through. Now he is a married man and is getting on with his life, but his life was on hold for a long time because our laws were inadequate.
The last time this bill was before the House it was passed unanimously and was sent to committee. While I do not claim that the bill is perfect, I think it should be sent to committee. At committee we will have to wrestle with balancing the rights of different individuals to make sure their charter rights are protected and so on. We can do that at committee. I urge members of parliament to pass the bill again, preferably unanimously, so that it will be sent to committee where we can wrestle with some of those intricacies. The justice committee is a good place to do that and it is infinitely qualified to do it.
Finally, all members of parliament will be getting an information packet with frequently asked questions and the detailed support from the dozens and dozens of national organizations that have supported the bill. I ask them to look at that in the days to come.