Madam Chair, I listened to my colleague's comments on national security and how passionate he was about keeping Canadians safe. I too am concerned about keeping Canadians safe in light of this incident. It draws attention to a number of failures of our court system that does the opposite. It shows that Canadians are not safe because of the lack of laws.
I want to comment on a newspaper article that speaks to the issue. The president of the Canadian Professional Police Association, Tony Cannavino, agreed with the comments of Mrs. Myrol when she said that we needed the Prime Minister to give power back to the police and that we needed to take power away from the Supreme Court and give it back to the House of Commons. He represents 54,000 police officers across the country. He went on to say, “even if you see that sentences were to rise from 10 years to 15 or let's say 20 or maybe life in prison, we know that no judge will give those sentences”. He said, “So what we say is, we need minimum sentencing that they will act as a deterrent”.
I wonder if my hon. colleague is as compassionate as the 54,000 police officers in the sense that we need to protect Canadians by making our courts a tougher place, by ensuring they apply the law and by changing the law so they have no option. They are not applying it today.
My hon. colleague from the Liberal Party who last spoke was concerned about the courts not applying the law. Does he have the same opinion and would he agree with the president of the Canadian Professional Police Association with regard to his comments on minimum sentencing?