Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for not only presenting the bill to the House but for his fine delivery and the sentiments he carried in his speech.
The unfortunate part is that when members on both sides of the House bring a private member's bill or motion to the House, if it bears enough weight, as does the hon. member's motion, it is mockery in some sense that the people who sit on both sides of the House do not have an opportunity to stand and vote yes or no on a bill such as this.
That is the problem because the hon. member has just delivered as fine a speech as one would want to hear across Canada. We are assured, and I am as sure as I am standing here, that 90% plus would agree with the bill. Why then do people from both sides of the House not have the opportunity to stand and show Canadians how they feel about this issue?
I myself introduced the first reading of a bill similar to this on January 30. It is a private member's bill, an act requiring the national flag of Canada to be flown at half-mast every November 11. If it is a good enough bill to be drawn, it is a good enough bill to be votable.
What will happen to the hon. member's bill now? Yes, one member from each party will discuss it. Then where will it go? What will happen to it? This is a non-votable bill and it will die, but the sentiment of the bill should not go that way.
The Royal Canadian Legion, which I have supported for years and which represents the majority of veterans in Canada, wrote to the justice minister three times over the period of one year. It never received an answer. This issue that my hon. colleague has brought up is a fulfilment in part of what the Royal Canadian Legion has asked over and over again.
The government has said that to make this a law, to make it illegal to desecrate the flag, would run contrary to the charter of rights and freedoms. If our charter of rights and freedoms deny the right to enshrine within the country the protection of the symbol of our flag then maybe we should take a look at the charter of rights and freedoms.
When I was a young lad going to school the flag went up every morning and there was a statement we all made: Emblem of liberty, justice and truth, flag of our country we salute. That was said regularly every day. That does not happen anymore. I remember a poem:
It's only an old piece of bunting It's only an old coloured rag But there are thousands who died for its honour And fell in defence of our flag.
That is the message we should be getting out but it is a non-votable bill.
I will pose one question to help enforce what my colleague opposite has said. Does the government forget our veterans were the ones who fought to ensure we could have a charter of rights and freedoms in the first place? Everyone knows the answer. The answer is that we can pass all kinds of laws that put reasonable limits on our rights and freedoms. For example, the charter limits our ability to hurt one another, to damage other people's property and so on, but why is it that we cannot pass a law which would make it an illegal, criminal offence to desecrate that symbol of Canada?
There is something wrong on both sides of the House when a bill like this does not become a votable item. Some may not have the same feeling toward the flag, but surely everyone will agree that it is the emblem of Canada. Approximately 114,000 Canadians spilled their blood all over this world in honour of that flag, and yet it is not a votable bill. Members should think about that.
When we were leaving Taiwan I commented to one of the Taiwanese chaps who had been with us that I really appreciated their beautiful tiled fences. Wherever I visited in that country I never saw one word of graffiti on any of them. Another chap asked him about freedom of expression. That Taiwanese gentleman said that people could paint their houses and their fences, but could not paint another individual's house or fence or a fence belonging to the government.
Canadians become obsessed with freedom of expression. Recently at the summit here in Ottawa we watched as people not only desecrated the flag but trampled all over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We sat idly by with our hands folded and said it was freedom of expression.
I will never forget one thing I learned from an old Welsh professor. He said that whenever we take anything to the extreme we are not sometimes wrong but always wrong. I suggest tonight that those who would not allow the bill to be votable are wrong. We are not sometimes wrong, but always wrong when these kind of bills come before the House and are not votable.
My private member's bill requests that the flag be flown at half-mast. Can we imagine that bill coming to the House for a vote? Can we imagine a member facing his or her constituents at home who would not dare to stand and support it? If my hon. colleague's bill had a free vote in the House, it would pass unanimously, but unfortunately it will go in the dust bin.
In closing I want to quote part of an old patriotic song:
At Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane, Our brave fathers, side by side, For freedom, homes, and loved ones dear, Firmly stood, and nobly died; And those dear rights which they maintained, We swear to yield them never! Our watchword evermore shall be, The Maple Leaf forever!
I hope that some day we will be able to bring items like this to the House and they will indeed be votable items.