And so popular. It would probably get anybody some votes.
Contrary to what the NDP says about this party not being interested in major issues, child pornography and the safety of our children is a major issue in the hearts of Canadians. If members of the NDP do not think it is, I would ask them to please start reading the hundreds and thousands of signatures on petitions in this place alone which beg us to do something about it.
What are we facing in regard to all of this? I started reading some letters that come in from the public. These letters are only a reflection of the hundreds of letters in regard to this issue. One letter reads, “Last week I heard on the radio that we do not have enough money and people power to prosecute child pornographers but we have a billion dollars to establish a long gun registry to keep trapping and sporting tools of law-abiding citizens. What is wrong with this picture? Firearm owners are not potential criminals. Those who prey on young children are already criminals”.
That is a very good point. The government is going after millions of people because it thinks there is a potential problem but in the one area that we have identified, through the help of other methods, it is not doing anything about it.
We are not helping our police departments. In case the people over there do not know it, Toronto is a huge city. I think it has three or four officers to deal with two million pieces of evidence regarding child pornography. They are begging and crying for help.
Members of the RCMP in my own riding have told me that they are getting complaints about child pornography from various sources but that they do not know what to do about it because they are not trained. They give those cases to the police departments in Calgary or Toronto.
We should stop and think about how right the guy is who wrote the letter. He goes on to say, “I don't know why I bother going down to the law court buildings any more to watch our so-called justice system in action. I only get more frustrated and disillusioned every time I go”. He then goes on to talk about the number of child predators and child pornographers who are convicted. “In every case”, he said, “they were given house arrest and community service”.
It is too bad we have to spend so much time talking about this issue. Now we have to wait until Bill C-20 goes to a committee. Even the Conservative Party critic, much to my dismay, said that we had no choice but to support this because we had to get it to committee to try to fix it.
Getting a document to committee means it will take weeks and months and it could probably die. In weeks and months thousands of kids could die. It is time we decided to do something about it. The Liberal Party is the government in power. It has the ability to bring forward the initiative. What is it waiting on?