Mr. Speaker, the member for Provencher is well aware of what is going on in our nation. He has taken a leadership role in trying to change things to make them better.
Yes, as a mother of a police officer, police officers come to our house and we have many conversations. Over and above that, being the former justice critic for the province of Manitoba, I met with many other segments of society and talked about sentences. The public is even talking about Michael Smith, a 25 year old, who was given an 18 month conditional sentence on two counts of dangerous driving causing death in a 2001 accident. He ran a red light and killed two people.
Following that more problems continued. This is typical of the kinds of things we talk about every day, not only with police officers but with people on the street.
The federal government has allowed the crime segment to get out of control in our great nation, a nation that gave birth to the RCMP. The RCMP is known and honoured worldwide. Many police officers across the country put their lives on the line every day.
We have a one billion dollar or two billion dollar gun registry, massive amounts of money being put into a black hole. Yet there is no direct input to complement the police forces on our streets.
Think about people such as Jack McLaughlin who has been a real champion of victims' rights in Manitoba. He has become a hero in his own right for the way he has championed the cause of victims. Jack has often said to me, “Why don't the victims of crime have some rights?” People like Jack come forward on a daily basis and say that we need to put the resources into the police complement on the street.
There have been many eloquent speeches by members opposite who have said that they are concerned about safety of Canadians. My answer to that is they should put their money where their mouth is and put the police resources on the streets now.