Mr. Speaker, let the record show, and I will gladly state, that the opposition party, having deliberately made its motion non-votable and embarrassed for having done so, on the floor of the House of Commons deliberately tried to change it and get our cooperation to get itself out of the embarrassment. No way, José. It does not happen that way. We are not going to do it. Alliance members can live with the decision that they made in regard to this motion. They can live with it. Not only is the motion just awful in the way it was structured, but they can live with the condition that I just described.
In a few minutes we will be at the questions and comments period, but we should remind people of the historical fact that the charter was adopted in our country after broad public debate and culminated in receiving widespread support. It enjoys the support of Canadians. While perhaps the impact of the charter was obviously not anticipated with every single court decision, we were all aware that the role of the courts would evolve as a result of conferring on them additional responsibilities. We conferred on the courts additional responsibilities. We should not be shocked that the courts have conferred responsibilities. That was decided at the time.
As a member of Parliament and as a cabinet minister, I believe that we have a duty to dispel the notion that judicial review is anti-democratic. It is not. It is a protection of democracy. This is a notion that is often preferred when individual or minority rights have been protected against majority excesses.
There is a great need for all of us to acquire a better understanding of the challenges that each of our democratic institutions, and our courts is one such institution, present the other in the development of laws that balance complex and competing public interests. This new understanding can only be achieved when these challenges are properly understood and the debate surrounding them is informed and responsible and that people do behave responsibly.
I want to take this opportunity to respond to critics of this alleged judicial activism on behalf of prisoners.
As members know, on October 31, 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision on the Canada Elections Act which had, of course, restricted inmates from voting. The fact that the decision was split five to four demonstrates how complex decisions about this kind of protection can be.
This was the second time in the past decade that the court had considered the constitutionality of restrictions on prisoners' right to vote. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that denying all inmates the right to vote was overly restrictive. After this decision, a second piece of legislation was enacted containing the restriction that existed until a short time ago.
Once again, the courts have ruled, and Parliament must respect their decision.
We will respect these decisions and we will do what is right. We will do what is right because it is right, not because some people found an issue to be raised this week, thinking somehow that it would increase their popularity in a riding where they are probably running around 10% or 15% in the public opinion polls. People earn the respect of the people in that constituency and elsewhere by doing the right things, not by further damaging themselves by making outrageous statements on the floor of the House of Commons. That is the way by which we will earn the respect of Canadians.