I sure would like to comment on that, Mr. Speaker. Sadly, I think the police are sometimes played in a very political way. We know that they were asking for a DNA registry at the time of arrest in exchange for having a system that would actually work. What they got was far less than that and it was contingent on their support for the gun registry.
They have sold their souls again a little bit to continue that support, although I know that many of the rank and file do not support the gun registry and were quite adamant about pointing that out when they were here in Ottawa last week, because they know it does not work. They know there will be no accurate, timely information available on that system. They know it targets the wrong persons. Clearly not only will criminals not register their guns, they will not give their fingerprints before they break into a house either. It has been presented to Canadians in a disingenuous, flawed and completely inaccurate way from the very beginning by the minister at that time, who is reminiscent of Otto Lang, once described by John Diefenbaker, from the member's province, as a person who walks through a cow pasture and if there are five cow patties he will step in every one. That accurately describes the previous minister of justice who introduced this legislation.
Directly to the point, the Canadian Police Association is very anxious to have a system that will work. It is very anxious to put in place a registry system that would enhance public safety and give police accurate information that they could act upon to protect the public, just as, I suggest, we should have a national registry for missing persons. For individuals who are currently missing, that system would allow us to log on to a national databank which would provide information that would help locate persons and those who are, sadly, often victimized and who have been missing for years.
There are many practical ways to address this, as opposed to a system that we know does not work, that has been a sinkhole, that has been just an absolute brierpatch of disingenuous government propaganda versus practical systems that in fact enhance public safety.
I know that this member and all members of the House want to see a genuine attempt to bring forward national databank systems that in a practical way will help protect Canadians' lives, will help protect children from sexual predators and will give information to police and allow them to do the important job that they are tasked to do. I thank the member for his question.