Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for her contribution to the important debate today.
I wanted to ask her a question about the charter. I have often heard arguments concerning the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that everything it brought was not necessarily all positive, that it also brought with it some exposures. We have seen those exposures by the significant number of challenges against the charter.
I have often thought that if we have a list of something, there would be exclusions or inclusions. If we have a list then someone must be left off, otherwise there would be no need for a list. It would apply equally to all.
Therefore, in the case of the democratic rights and freedoms of any of the matters that we consider to be our rights, the charter should probably have said that all persons resident or on Canadian soil shall enjoy the protection of those rights under the charter, period. It would apply to everyone whether they are citizens, non-citizens, visitors, immigrants, refugees or whatever.
The member is well aware of the plethora of charter challenges on a variety of issues. Is Parliament now questioning whether or not the notwithstanding clause was a serious effort to recognize that there would be problems under the charter and that it was a necessary tool? Or whether in fact it was simply there as an accommodation which was never intended to be used, but that we would work through the evolution of the changes to our laws in Canada on a case by case basis? I would be interested in her comments.