Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the member for White Rose for his question and to tell him that I have absolutely no doubt of his desire to protect children. This is an issue that is very close to my heart, being the father of a 5-year-old boy.
In order to show where our opinions diverge, however, let us look at the following example. A psychiatrist or psychologist is trying to study pedophiles' attraction to children. To do so he needs written or pictorial material created by a pornographer in order to provide care to the mentally ill persons involved in pornography and in order to investigate what make this sexual deviant a danger to the children in our society.
Would what the hon. member is proposing—and this is what I want to question in committee as well—deprive researchers and scientists of the possibility of studying this phenomenon in order to combat it?
We can, of course, fight the spread of child pornography, via the Internet in particular, with the help of law enforcement officers and specially developed technologies. This is being done, of course, but it is also important to get to the source of the problem, not just the causes. Not only must the symptoms be addressed, but work must also be done directly with the dangerous offenders that are the source of the problem. If they are to be able to do this, our researchers, our doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists must have access to the tools required.
As a result, this will be an issue I will be wanting to pursue when the bill is debated in committee, so that our children will be protected today and in the future. There may be a way to provide these people with the treatment they so badly need, and thereby to provide our children with the protection they also need.