Madam Speaker, the member is onto something, which is I guess is the point that we are attempting to logically debate today. This is a big question in the minds of many Canadians and in fact some civil libertarians on issues like that. There comes a point when we have to ask, “Who are we protecting? Are we here to protect the greater society or the greater good or an individual that has been convicted of a heinous crime?” That is really the essence of the debate.
I think many Canadians fall down on the side of that member in this case. I think the law has let us down. Who was it who said that the law is an ass from time to time? I should have the full quote before me, but this is an example of where the law in a sense has to be revisited.
If we are talking about the charter, there are many members here who have legal backgrounds. This is a road that most governments do not want to go down. We tried that in the late eighties, early nineties and right through to the fall of the Progressive Conservative government in 1993 where we paid a heavy price for some of that constitutional renewal. Some of the charter issues were being debated then.
We do have in the charter a notwithstanding clause which, to my knowledge, the federal government has never exercised. Some of the provinces have from time to time. In other words, notwithstanding these rights, the Government of Canada would have the chance to basically put the charter on hold for five years I think while it thought its way through some of these issues. That in fact has never been used by the federal government and I think it has only used twice by the provinces. One of them was the province of Quebec and, if I am not mistaken, I think the province of Manitoba as well.
There is a safety mechanism or trigger in the charter which is very seldom used by the federal government, much to the chagrin of many Canadians from time to time.