Madam Speaker, I want to say at the outset that from what I can understand, I think all of us in the chamber, and certainly the official opposition joins with the other parties in stating that this is a step in the right direction. I do not think there is any question of that. However, it is our role also to do a very careful analysis of legislation as it comes forward. It is our job to bring forward what we feel are constructive suggestions about legislation as it comes before the House.
Certainly Bill C-13, the bill dealing with the DNA data bank is no different in that sense. We want to have the best tools possible for our law enforcement officers across the country. We want to ensure, as some of my colleagues have said before me, that the guilty are indeed brought to justice, that they are punished, and especially with the best interests of the victims in mind, that we hold those people accountable for their crimes.
Obviously, the DNA data bank is designed for the best interests of victims and their families. It is designed to protect potential victims. It is designed to ensure that innocent people do not go to jail for crimes they did not commit. All of those things have been addressed, at least partially, by colleagues who have spoken already.
I feel very strongly that we cannot allow what I consider the legal industry, which is not to be confused with the justice system, in Canada to rob our society of a very important scientific tool. That is not to say that I am dismissing the concerns of human rights and privacy activists in connection with this legislation and the establishment of the DNA data bank. Certainly there is potential for abuse or even misuse of the DNA collection and we must take all the necessary security precautions to safeguard this very personal information. However, I believe we cannot, out of fear of potentially invading someone's privacy, throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Personally, and speaking for the constituents of Prince George--Peace River whom I have spoken to about this issue, I believe that if we are going to err on this issue, we should err on the side of holding people accountable and responsible for the crimes that they commit. Unfortunately, we believe that this legislation allows for too many loopholes that would allow a criminal to escape justice.
Average Canadians, whether they are from Prince George--Peace River up in northern British Columbia or in downtown Ottawa and anywhere between, understand this issue. When we talk to them they understand this.
To gather evidence of this, I recently mailed out a householder and provided information on this issue. I asked the constituents of Prince George--Peace River if they believed the government should expand the number and types of crimes for which a convict must provide a DNA sample. Constituents have just begun receiving this booklet over the last couple of weeks, but already the survey responses have been pouring into my mailbox. Just 5% of my constituents responded no to additional DNA testing. Ten per cent indicated they were unsure on the issue. However, 85% said yes, more criminals should be forced to provide DNA samples.
However, in Bill C-13, the bill before us today, there are far too many provisions that would allow a convict to avoid providing a DNA sample. For example, if the person committed the crime before June 2000, a judicial order would have to be sought for a DNA sample. Also, a convicted offender could always appeal to the court in order to prevent the collection of DNA. If we were to ask the people on the street about this, they do not understand it when the rights of a criminal to privacy under the charter come up against the rights of the generally accepted protection of society and the protection of the most vulnerable citizens in society as all too often we are talking about women and children in cases where it is necessary to gather DNA samples.
Police have asked for the ability to collect DNA at the time of charge, as with fingerprints. Here again we can have a debate and it is good that we have that debate. Whether it would be appropriate at the time of arrest, or whether it would be more appropriate at the time of the charge being laid or whether it would be more appropriate at the time of conviction, or whatever, we need to have a debate on this. We should not have the government proceed and allow the loopholes to exist. Lawyers would have a field day with this. By not being forced to provide a DNA sample, they could get people, who should be held accountable, off on these technicalities.
As so often happens in our legal system, and with this government, the rights and privacy of convicts and criminals seem to take precedence over the rights of victims and their families. I believe the government has to start becoming as obsessed with the compassion for victims as it seems to be with the legal rights of criminals. When I think about DNA collection, I think about what that information can do for victims in my riding and for their families who may never know what happened to their loved ones or see justice done to their killers or attackers.
If our DNA data bank were strengthened through substantive amendments to the legislation, I wonder whether investigators would be able to solve the disappearance of six teenage girls and women along what has been come known as “the highway of tears” on highway 16 between Prince George in my riding and Prince Rupert? This is a series of sad and disturbing unsolved disappearances between those two cities. Three of the girls were found murdered and three have never been found.
I wonder, and I have often thought about this, if their killer or abductors would have been found, charged and convicted by now if our legal system had enough teeth to ensure that DNA of violent criminals was on file. It is possible that their killer or killers could have been in and out of jail for other violent convictions and if DNA collection were mandatory and there was no room for loopholes, they might have been stopped. We will never know.
I am not a great fan of reality television. There seems to be such an abundance of them on television nowadays. I do not waste much time watching them. However, one show I watch, which is reality television, is something called Cold Case Files . It is extremely interesting to see how the technology has changed and how they have gone back to some of the cold cases of decades of old murders and rapes. They are solving them because of DNA. Through DNA, they have found that someone who is in prison for some other crime is accountable for some other unsolved crime.
I will end by talking a bit about the other side of the issue, and that is the wrongfully convicted. Many of them have simply given up or do not have the access to the family support. I think of the David Milgaards and Steven Truscott, who was recently in the news as he still struggles to try to clear his name, and what a proper functioning DNA data bank could do in proving people are innocent.
I believe we have the technology and the science to ensure that others do not suffer as these men have and to ensure that their victims and the victims' families do not have to endure decades long turmoil and uncertainty as well. It is not only the wrongfully convicted who suffer, it is also the their families. They know someone out there did this horrendous crime and they got away with it. They have never had to serve their time. They have never been held accountable and responsible for their actions.
I look forward to seeing the bill, hopefully, amended to put some real teeth in it and have a tool that the police and the courts can use to hold those accountable responsible for their actions and to ensure that people who have not committed crimes do not serve time for something they did not commit.