Mr. Speaker, I did not hear a question but the usual rant. This is what demeans Parliament in views of many people. Members stand up, and rant and rave about how only the Alliance is concerned about children victimized by sexual predators because it introduces these motions again and again, as if it does anything to address the real issues of victimization.
There is not a thinking Canadian over the age of, I will arbitrarily say, 13 years old who thinks that, despite differences of opinion in the House and the diversity of ideological views, there is anybody in the House who is in favour of the sexual exploitation of children. It is an absurdity to stand up and say that. It does earn the disrespect of Canadians who wonder what all the nonsense is about.
I listened to the words of the questioner a few moments ago. He talked about how it was time that we made it clear in Parliament that we mean business when it comes to dealing with pedophiles. There is no one in this House who does not mean business when it comes to dealing with pedophiles, but we are not like minded in how far we would go to tip the balance in the direction of saying we should arbitrarily ban all kinds of things.
Yes, the issue is to protect children from exploitation and exposure. We must look at ways to do that. However, we must also be concerned with the arbitrariness and the fanaticism that gets expressed by members from that corner of the House on issues of freedom of speech and expression. We must be concerned about how far we go to give them the power to trample on freedom of speech and expression. What else will they ban? Will they stop at issues concerning the victimization of children? Will they start banning ideas that they do not like, and so on?
That may seem extreme, but that is why we have a system of checks and balances. It is to curb the excesses that may occur on all sides of these kinds of issues. Thank heavens we have a judicial system. It may not be perfect. I do not agree with every decision and nobody here would agree with every decision, but I will entrust to the Supreme Court the interpretation of the law and continue to insist that we in the House, as parliamentarians, take the responsibility for the implementation of progressive laws.