Mr. Speaker, again we recognize in the Regina v Sharpe case that Canadians were appalled at the court when on certain points it suggested that the pornography, the sexually explicit pictures that were in Mr. Sharpe's possession, held some artistic merit.
I do not believe that any other issue has brought more letters or more petitions to my office and probably to all members on all sides of the House than the decision by the court suggesting that some of what Mr. Sharpe possessed had artistic value and artistic merit.
If changing and taking away the artistic merit and including public good, but saying now the courts will debate and discuss to see if there is an educational purpose that may constitute public good, it may be allowed. If there is science that through some of these pictures it may constitute public good, it may be allowed.
The member is absolutely correct. I heard him say earlier that there is no public good in child pornography. We are all appalled at individuals and the pornography itself that depicts children in that method.
I am at the point that I do not know if the government has the ability to build any type of legislation that will protect children as long as the courts grasp for certain parts of the charter that would guarantee things and parts of their argument based on public good. I do not understand and I would thank the minister for bringing forward what the court would deem public good.