Mr. Speaker, I rise to request more information on a question I asked earlier with respect to the Vienna Convention and the immunity for diplomats, which has been brought to light because of the very unfortunate accident in Ottawa involving a Russian diplomat which resulted in a fatality and the serious injury of another person and a pet. It certainly put the focus of attention for all of Ottawa and a great deal of the country on this issue of diplomatic immunity and just how far diplomatic immunity extends.
Although for a while it did not look like the Russian diplomat would be charged, it now looks like there is at least a chance he will be charged for this fatality. There will be an investigation done in Russia under article 264 of their criminal code, which appears to be the appropriate place for it.
In any case, the problem with this issue is that the diplomat was known to be an abusive person and was also known to have a record of driving while intoxicated. The diplomatic immunity that we have and need as politicians and diplomats around the world was used to protect this person from prosecution or even from discipline for driving while intoxicated.
While we realize the Vienna Convention is very important, we think there are serious flaws in it and we would like the minister to lead the charge to change the Vienna Convention. Canada is not the only country to have experienced difficulties with diplomats who abuse the immunity rules. We think there would be consensus in other countries to change the Vienna Convention with respect to immunity to prevent diplomats from abusing the system, repeatedly breaking the law and endangering people's lives like the Russian diplomat did in Canada.
I would also like to point out that I believe the administration of the Russian embassy is partly responsible for this, because it knew that it had a diplomat who was acting in a dangerous manner and was abusive to the police every time he was stopped. He abused his immunity rules to protect himself when really they should not have been used for that purpose. They were never intended for that.
We want the minister to take the initiative to change the Vienna convention to prevent diplomats from abusing it in cases where they are endangering lives of people in other countries. We think that Canada should take a leading role in spearheading the amendment to the Vienna convention. We think there would be a great deal of support around the world for it.
The question I asked before is the same question I am asking now. Will the Government of Canada spearhead an international initiative to change the rules on diplomatic immunity and in particular to stop protecting drunk and dangerous drivers?