Madam Speaker, usually we say we are pleased to rise and speak to a certain bill, but I will be perfectly honest with you. I am not pleased at all. For the last two Parliaments we have risen and spoken on protecting the children of our country. I cannot believe that we have spent month after month and year after year debating such an elemental thing that needs to be done, that is, to protect our kids, and I mean protect them fully.
We know this all started with the John Sharpe case when some judge declared that there was artistic merit involved in child pornography. We know all about that. Then the legislators worked hard and replaced the words “artistic merit” with the words “public good”, which did not really change a thing. Now we are looking at the words “legitimate purpose”. They include that old, famous three-letter word “art” in everything they propose.
It is hard to believe that in view of the numbers of children, the hundreds and thousands of children, who have been murdered, raped and pillaged because of child pornography, we as a House of Commons cannot come up with a piece of legislation that simply says there will be absolutely no tolerance for the possession, the distribution or the manufacturing of pornography that exploits our children.
That is not to say that a police officer is in danger because he has taken away some of this stuff from a predator. This does not say that at all. He is not out to exploit the children. He is out there trying to fight for the cause.
It absolutely blows my mind that grown-up men and women who are elected to this place cannot, after three years, come up with legislation that is solid and firm and says that we are going to have absolutely no tolerance of any exploitation of our children through child pornography. We would have 95% to 98% of the population behind us if we were to make that kind of move.
Yet we continually play word games and continually present legislation which leaves that little dab in there that makes it not worth voting for. We cannot vote for something that does not fully eliminate child pornography. There is no defence for it. I get so sick and tired of this word “art” being included as a defence for child pornography.
Let me tell the House what art is with children. I have seven grandchildren. I love every one of them dearly. I have a little girl who is my grandchild. Do members know what art is? Every time I look at her and I see how beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has and what a tremendous job God did in creating that child, that is the art of the Maker and the Creator, that is what I see. How dare someone kidnap that child or scoop her off a street, as has happened so many times very recently, done by predators to exploit them with their ugly, sick and what some people might think is a form of art.
For the life of me I cannot understand why there is any hesitation. If the charter of rights is interfering with coming up with the kind of legislation that will bring about positive effects and zero tolerance for this, then for Pete's sake let us use the notwithstanding clause. The people who wrote the charter had wisdom enough to know that sooner or later something might come up that would be difficult to handle because of other parts of the charter. That could be put in the notwithstanding clause and we could eliminate such things as child pornography. Oh, but what a dread thought.
I really do not understand. I do not understand how members are able to sit there with smiles on their face thinking they have accomplished something by allowing such wording in a bill: “a legitimate purpose”.
Everyone knows, and if they do not, they ought to know, that people who are caught in possession of child pornography will very likely hunt themselves up a lawyer and immediately their defence will be for legitimate purpose. They may not be successful, but I would almost guarantee that our courts would be clogged with people trying to defend themselves under those two words. It is automatic. Why would they not?
They defended themselves under artistic merit. I guarantee that they would try to defend themselves under public good. Why would they not under legitimate purpose? Somewhere there may be a judge who once again would agree that there is legitimate purpose, that there is some art there, or whatever.
There was a person recently taken off the streets of Toronto. What did the person who was taken off the streets and murdered one particular little girl say? He said when he was released from penitentiary, he got back into child pornography and it affected him so severely that he had to go out and react to his desires.
I have been to many penitentiaries, visiting with various offenders, particularly those who have been arrested, charged and convicted of child offences of this nature. Practically everyone of them confessed to me that it was child pornography that got them hooked on the idea. There are also the perverted minds out there that are trying to convince the population that it is a healthy activity to include our little children in sexual ventures. We know that goes on all the time.
I do not understand why grown up men and women who are elected to this place cannot jointly decide one day that we have a problem because we are losing too many of our children, they are being hurt severely and some are being murdered. There is a real problem out there. There are too many broken hearts and too many broken families, far more than we deserve.
Let us come into the House of Commons some morning and make a determination that this is the day that a group of people who are supposed to have a few brains are going to fix the problem. Are we going to allow it to go on and on until the next Parliament comes out with another piece of legislation with other kinds of words that try to protect whatever it is: freedom of expression, freedom of speech? We must be cautious there. Hog manure.
I do not know how in this country we ever got to the point where people dare not walk into an airport and shout “bomb”. They would be in real trouble. Nor would they go into a theatre and yell “fire”. They would be in real trouble. As far as I am concerned they should not have any child pornography in their possession either or they would be in real trouble, right now, no ifs, ands or buts.
I wonder what zero tolerance means to the people who make this legislation and present it? I have been told over and over again when I have asked officials what their policy is on drugs in penitentiaries, that it is zero tolerance. Well, it is not working. There are more drugs in the penitentiaries than there are on the streets of the cities. Zero tolerance. What the devil does it mean? Why are we continually trying to cover little details on such an elemental thing?
The protection of our children is something that we will fight tooth and nail for and we will accomplish it no matter what it takes. We will send the message to the courts that it is the decision of the highest court in the land, that it is the decision of the people of Canada who we represent.
While we are at it, we are going to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. I think it should be raised to 25 but 14 to 16 would be sufficient. We have to get it up there. What are we doing allowing legislation to stay in place that says 14-year olds have the ability to deal with these kinds of problems when they are taken to the streets and asked to be prostitutes? Of course, we know what happens. In all the cities we are having 11 and 12-year olds being arrested.
We ought not to be a proud bunch that this is going on in this country. Actually, we ought to hang our heads in shame. I thought, after the first time we had a debate on this, that sooner or later there would be something that would really put an end to this and help our police fight this very tragic situation.
They should not have to sort through millions of pieces of garbage to determine if there is art, artist merit or whatever. Handfuls of police in Toronto must sift through all this junk because we have to ensure we protect the rights of the pedophile and the crazies that want to hurt our kids.
When are we going to get the nerve to stand in this place as a collective group of people? We are a minority government. We want to talk about cooperation. Let us cooperate today. Let us start today to make it safe for our kids and eliminate child pornography. Eliminate means eliminate. Let us get at it.