Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to speak on Motion No. 387.
The fact is that there is sufficient evidence, some anecdotal, but widespread enough evidence, that there are significant flaws in our criminal justice system, in our penal system and in our parole system such that the Canadian public is quite rightly concerned and fearful of the ramifications of a system that is so important to the protection of individual Canadians in their homes and in their communities. They are legitimately concerned.
A full, independent public inquiry into the parole system and the corrections and sentencing system to provide a more objective and educated perspective and analysis of this very important area is indeed warranted and would provide a lot of answers for Canadians. It may in fact identify not just what is not working in the system but what is working. I would hope that we would take the time to look at best practices models from other countries and find ways to incorporate some of them, so that it would not be simply an inquiry into what is wrong with the Canadian system but would actually take time to work on and identify some of the successes in other countries in this regard in terms of reforming our system. We could look at it from a very positive perspective.
The Liberal government is singularly incapable of that kind of analysis, proactivity and vision. It is a government that is paralyzed by leadership intrigue, which is ironic because we do not see leadership in anything else. The fiscal deficit may be gone but there is a vision deficit on the other side. The government has not been able to tackle any of the major issues facing Canadians, whether they are economic issues, trade issues, agriculture issues or justice issues. In every case this is a government that delays, dilly-dallies and denies that problems even exist.
In fact I wish that the justice committee and the House of Commons could be more fully engaged in studying this issue and that as parliamentarians we could address it. The fact is that the Prime Minister, the cabinet and the government have done so much to reduce the roles and authority of committees and individual members of parliament to do so that I think nothing less than a full public inquiry is necessary. I agree with the hon. member on this motion.
We could spend a great deal of time reviewing some of the individual cases and some of the stories of people in Canada whose lives who have been changed irrevocably, people who have lost loved ones or have been brutally attacked and had their lives changed in terrible ways by repeat offenders who ought not to have been freed to relapse into crime.
The fact is that there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that a systemic problem could very much be the case, so our party and I support this private member's motion. Any analysis of or any shining of light onto this issue by an independent inquiry would be very helpful. It would help this place, parliament, to deal with the issue with more information. We cannot simply deal with some of the information; we need all of the information to build good public policy. Good public policy is built around reality, not perceptions. I agree with the hon. member that there are some fundamental flaws in our criminal justice system now, but we need to have the facts before we proceed. The only way to have those facts is through this kind of inquiry.
I commend the hon. member for his motion. As I said, we support it and would hope that the government, instead of in a very pithy and partisan way denying the legitimacy of the motion and claiming that everything in the criminal justice system is working very well, would embrace a solid idea from opposition, as I think it ought to, and demonstrate some level of transparency, openness and commitment to reforming Canada's criminal justice system or at least identifying some of the fundamental flaws. The government itself ought to support the motion instead of denying that any problems that exist.
I would also argue that on numerous issues, whether it is on health care or economic issues, the government has really tried to deny problems and tried to delay implementing solutions, to the extent that it has created irrevocable damage for Canadian competitiveness, quality of life and standard of living. This is in stark contrast to the Mulroney government, which studied and analyzed situations and was not afraid to take bold visionary steps to correct problems and to embrace opportunities.
The best example of that in a completely different area of public policy was what the Mulroney government did with the Macdonald commission report. Donald Macdonald was a Liberal and a former finance minister under the Trudeau government. His commission on North American trade issues recommended that Canada spearhead efforts to enter into a free trade agreement with the U.S. The Mulroney government, in which my leader the right hon. member for Calgary Centre was the foreign minister and played a leadership role in this area, took the advice of that commission. It proceeded with and embraced the advice and the vision of that commission and took huge political risks, but it actually changed the country, changed the continent and improved significantly the standard of living of Canadians.
Donald Macdonald said in a speech I heard about a year and a half ago that he did not believe that the current government, the Liberal government, this cruise control, do nothing, dilly-dallying government, would have done anything with that report. However, this is the kind of vision we need now, whether it is on criminal justice issues or economic issues.