The law improves the state but does not improve it enough, and that was the excuse for voting against it. This is what the member across the way are telling me. Canadians will be free to judge that one.
I want to deviate a bit from my text and speak to the other issue that was raised about inmate voting. Here is how the logic across the way works. Members across the way claim that the Charter of Rights goes too far in giving authority to judges but we do respect what is in the Constitution. The member who spoke just before me said that. However in the case of inmate voting, which is outside the Charter of Rights but within the Constitution, he does not like the Constitution. Does the logic of this escape some members? It has escaped me.
The hon. member has said that we must override the Charter of Rights while respecting the Constitution, except when something is adjudicated upon that is in the Constitution and the decision rendered is not liked. This is like a double notwithstanding clause. If we do not like that notwithstanding clause, we amend the Constitution and create a new notwithstanding clause. That is ridiculous.
For years, centuries even, people—philosophers and others—have talked about the rule of law and the importance of the judiciary being separate from the legislative branch. This has been a part of our traditions since the very beginnings of this country.
Earlier, we heard an argument in favour of electing Supreme Court judges. What western democracy has this kind of structure? I do not know of any.
Of course, there may be municipal judges in some American cities that are elected. That may be the case in some states. However, this is not universally true, nor is it true when it comes to judges in the U.S. Supreme Court. They are most certainly not elected.
The independence of the judiciary is fundamental. Judges' independence must be respected, both individually and collectively. When there are problems with a judge, due to personal conduct or something of that nature, there is a judicial council that deals with the case.
However, with respect to creating a parliamentary appeals court that could overturn the Supreme Court in cases where we did not like constitutional judgments, I am not game for that. I am the minister responsible for our country's electoral laws. Did I like the Sauvé decision? Of course not, and we appealed it. However, in the end, it is the Supreme Court that decided. The Supreme Court decided, as was its right, instead of doing what the minister responsible for the Canada Elections Act would have liked.
Of course the minister would have liked something different, otherwise, we would not have appealed the decision; that is obvious. That was the position of the minister, being myself, and the cabinet, because the decision to appeal is up to the cabinet. We did appeal it, and the result was the Sauvé ruling.
Now the members opposite are saying, “We respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but there is a legitimate procedure to overturn decisions under the Charter”.
Except that it does not apply to the Sauvé case, and the hon. member himself said so earlier. He is suggesting that, because it would not apply to the Sauvé case, therefore the entire Constitution should be overturned, just to deprive one person of a right. To overturn the Constitution is ridiculous to begin with, and to want to do so to take away a right is even more ridiculous.
Those who have the right to vote are not necessarily the ones we like best, individually or collectively. There are many people I do not like as much as others. There may even be some I do not like at all. I might prefer that some of them did not vote. However, this is not the same as saying that this allows us, individually or collectively, to deprive them of the right to vote, especially after they were given this right by the Supreme Court of our country.