Mr. Chair, it is a pleasure for me to stand and lend my voice to the debate this evening. I thank the party House leaders for granting my request for this debate. It is very important that we discuss and take note of this specific incident with regard RCMP and law enforcement in the country. It is critical. This is the worst incident we have seen of RCMP members losing their lives, or members of associate forces, since 1885.
We pause and need to take note of what we do this evening within these walls with regard to the four slain officers in Mayerthorpe in my riding and very near my residence, Anthony Gordon, Leo Johnston, Brock Myrol and Peter Schiemann. I want to thank Canadians for the outpouring of support for the families, friends, colleagues and the four young men.
This is a very dangerous business. These men knew it and accepted it. Thousands of men and women across the country put their lives on the line each day. We need to remember that. They do it by dedicating themselves to the service of the country. There has been a change.
I will be splitting my time, Mr. Speaker, with the member for Central Nova, as was requested earlier.
I want to talk about the change that we have seen in law enforcement and what police officers are faced with on the streets. When I attended many of the memorial services for these young fallen officers, I spoke to police forces. They told me that not only were they walking into dangerous incidents, they were becoming targets of criminals. When criminals lose respect for law enforcers and lose the fear of the criminal justice system, then we are in a very dangerous situation.
We have an opportunity tonight to come into the House as legislators and make laws for the country. We can take an incident like this and say that it was one crazy individual committing an unbelievably heinous crime or we can pause and ask ourselves what have we learned and what should we change so this will not repeat itself time and time again. That is what is challenging every man and woman in the House and that is what we should be taking note of today. Not only should we be taking note of it federally, but also provincially. We have responsibilities in both jurisdictions.
I would like to talk about this killer for a minute. This individual had 30 criminal charges over three decades and 8 convictions. Some of them involved firearms, break and entry, lawful confinement, death threats, possession of stolen property and assault. The individual should not have been on the streets. It is one of the most horrendous stories one will hear when talking to residents of the Mayerthorpe area. They will say how this man intimidated a community, police officers and families. He had no business being out of the court system.
The courts failed not only these officers and the community but the country, and we have to do something about it. This incident draws attention to not only the lax court system but also the lax way that we deal with drugs. It draws attention to a gun registry that absolutely does not work, never will work and did not protect the community in this case. It never would even if we could comply with it. It is a waste of $2 billion up to this point.
This case talks about sex abuse crimes. We have a situation where Carla Homolka, one of the worst we have seen, is about to be released into our community. We have a sex offenders list and she will not be on it. We have to understand what is going on in our weak court system.
I have laid out the issues, but before my time expires, I want to talk specifically about some of the things about which one family talked. The family's words are much more powerful than a politician's. Brock Myrol's mother said:
It is time that our government take a stand on evil...
It is time to take our liberal-minded attitude to task.
Prime Minister, we depend on you and expect you to change the laws and give the courts real power. Give the police real power. Take the power away from the Supreme Court and give it back to the House of Commons.
Our country is hurting. We lost four dedicated citizens who were willing to do something about it.
I have another letter that was written by a family member yesterday. She said:
It is not acceptable that it has taken a tragedy of such immense proportion... to hopefully have drawn the public's attention to the value of, and the dangers faced by, law enforcement/and peace officers daily...due to shortages of members and resources.
But mostly because of the failure and inadequacies of the justice system in not implementing the laws we already have.
We have an opportunity this evening to do something. We can either walk away from this incident or do something about it. I implore the House to take note of the incident and do something about it.