Mr. Speaker, I became very angry when I heard the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice talk about the increase in the costs of trials and treatments. He spoke only about money. He did not say a word about sex offences committed against individuals under the age of 14. He said nothing about the impact and how it ruins the life of a young person. He answered like a technocrat. I hope he will never face such a problem in his family or that people he knows will never experience such a tragedy.
Dozens and dozens of young persons were raped by sex offenders, by pedophiles in my region. I met them. Dozens of youths under the age of 14 signed the petition; they cried and shouted. You cannot imagine how much I felt their anger. I wish the member had seen them; I wish he had listened to them to get a better idea of the numbers. I would have liked him to open his heart to their plight.
Young people who are sexually abused are scarred for life. I also met mothers who were abused by pedophiles when they were young. Today, these women are adults, but they have never psychologically recovered from such abuse. I would have liked the parliamentary secretary to listen to them and to help me. No, this bill is not perfect and I had no intention of claiming that it is.
I want to thank the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough for all the issues that he raised. I thank him for his support. I also thank the Canadian Alliance member. I would have liked this bill to be referred to the Standing Committee on Justice, because we could have heard witnesses and we could have discussed all the issues that are part of this legislation. But these people will never be heard by members like the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.
Worse still, and this makes me want to scream, is the fact that the government whip opposed the idea that this bill be made a votable item. Yet she is a woman. This is even worse.
As a woman, as a mother and as a grandmother, what this government is doing violates my very being. It does not want to pursue this issue. It does not want this issue to be discussed at the justice committee. The government could at least hear evidence. There are many people from my region who would like to appear before the Standing Committee on Justice, so that at last they can be heard by parliamentarians, who are here to listen to the public. But these people will not have the opportunity to do so and I am extremely disappointed.
Today, April 10, 2002, is a turning point in my life as a woman. I never would have thought that, in 2002, parliamentarians would refuse to hear people who were sexually abused.
This is why I am again asking for the unanimous consent of the House, so that my bill can at least make it to the Standing Committee on Justice, so that it can be improved, witnesses be heard and the issue by understood by its members. Even if the bill is not adopted by the committee, at least these people would have been heard.
I am making a heartfelt plea to all parliamentarians and to those who are listening to us. Mr. Speaker, I would be grateful if you could ask again for the unanimous consent of the House.