Mr. Speaker, the member opposite virtually wrote a part of my speech. He pre-empted some of the comments I was going to make.
When talking about funding terrorist organizations, it is very interesting that the Liberal government says that the bill is a small but necessary step. As for terrorism in any country, it should not be dealt with by a small and necessary step.
The bill is supposed to provide a mechanism for denying registration as charities under the Income Tax Act to organizations that raise funds for terrorists.
One would think that with the large bureaucracy and with all the members of parliament in the House of Commons, the government would come up with a more efficient way to fight terrorism than merely dealing with a comprehensive approach, through a federal court judge, of denying registration as a charity.
What will the people in Canada think of that kind of step where the government says that, yes, we have a severe problem with terrorists being funded from funds raised in Canada and what we will do is deny registration as a charity if it goes through a whole bunch of processes?
Surely Canadians are expecting more than this from a government. What more could the government do? I did not hear anything about the Immigration Act. There was casual mention of it. What about application of the Immigration Act to many people who are involved in terrorism in this country? If an organization is suspected of dealing with terrorist activities, then surely the people within that organization are suspect. What proposal is being made for deportation of non-citizens, if that is the case, within the Immigration Act?
What proposal is made under the criminal code for those citizens within Canada who are involved in terrorism? What proposal is being made through the criminal code for wire tapping? Right now it takes about 1,500 pages to fill out the application and approval for a wire tap when approximately eight years ago it took about five pages.
What I am saying is that this is a feeble attempt, at the very best, to deal with terrorism in our country.
The member opposite said that if a group constituted a threat to the security of Canada, then the government would take a lot of action. It would file through a federal court judge to make sure that an association, with which an individual or individuals were involved, could have its certificate removed as a registered charity. It is hard to believe that a government could come up with this kind of approach.
There are things that can be done about terrorism such as simplifying the procedures for obtaining wiretaps and providing more resources for the RCMP, CSIS and for organizations involved in the prevention and apprehension of those involved in terrorism and organized crime. We should define what a terrorist group constitutes, just as we were supposed to define what an organized crime gang in law was and failed to do so.
It is hard to get enthusiastic with the registration of a charity and the refusal or removal of that when we are dealing with such a large issue as organized crime or terrorism. Where I come from it is hard to believe that the triads, who possibly are involved in terrorism, would be overly concerned about losing their registration as a charitable organization. Quite frankly they deal in tax free dollars. It is called revenue from drug sales, prostitution, embezzlement, money laundering, all illegal activities. I hardly think they would be concerned with their charitable organization certification being removed.
I have been involved in looking at the issues in criminal justice for my entire time in the House of Commons. I asked time and time again for policies and legislation to be tabled in the House which were meaningful, which would do something constructive, which would help reduce the importation and the traffic of drugs and which would stop the problems with sexual exploitation of children and others.
What I get back in return are solutions like this. It is hard to believe that people watching television today and listening to this discussion will have a lot of confidence in the Government of Canada when it says that it will fix this terrible problem of terrorism, that it may remove charitable organization certification and that it may not allow them to get tax free status for the money they send to other countries.
Can they honestly believe that members of parliament are actually debating this bill? Would they not prefer to hear that in cases of organized crime and terrorism we will deal with it in a different manner? They just have to listen to the speeches today and ask themselves if this will deal with the problems related to terrorism in Canada?
Would the proposal adequately stop or hinder terrorism or in any way put somebody in jail for being involved in terrorism? No, it would not. It says people would not get tax free dollars by way of a tax receipt, a tax receipt for which they did not pay tax for in the first place.
I not only question the bill but I question the sincerity of the government. I question the ability of the government to comprehend the serious nature of the problem that we are dealing with. If people watching television today think I am wrong, they should listen to the speeches from the other side. This is the effective action that the government will take on terrorism.
I ask everybody watching to write letters to the House of Commons, to the solicitor general, to me as the solicitor general critic and to state whether or not they believe that the way to fight terrorism is, in the words of the Liberals, to fight what constitutes a threat to the security of Canada. Or, is it what I described? Is it denying the registration of charities under the Income Tax Act?
I rest my case. This is not only ineffective but it shows a lack of comprehension of what the real problems are with organized crime and terrorism in Canada.