Mr. Speaker, in some respects I am going to make an extended comment, especially in view of the government member's glowing recount of the bill.
In general I suppose the bill could be seen as a housekeeping measure because we already have a law that does this. However this particular bill extends some of the terms of the existing law.
In that respect I am supportive of the general spirit of being able to repatriate Canadians who are sentenced abroad. I see there is reciprocation in the bill. It allows other foreign nationals to be reciprocated out of Canada to their jurisdictions. I have been involved in some of those cases as a former officer of the courts of British Columbia.
However I look at the definition of a Canadian offender on page 1. It states “and whose verdict and sentence may no longer be appealed”.
I can see in some foreign jurisdictions where the technicalities of law in those foreign countries the sentence or conviction could still be appealed. There may be no sunset clause like there is in Canada. Yet the offender has no financial ability or may not even be able to get counsel because he is seen as a religious pariah or whatever and by definition he is discounted from ever even applying to the law.
On page 2 it says a transfer is not available “unless the Canadian offender's conduct would have constituted a criminal offence”. I look at all the Islamic law where there is going to be great difficulty. We are going to have Canadians in jail yet coming to Canada there would be no such law at all.
These are some of the--