Madam Speaker, if the Bloc members were the slightest bit sincere, they would have accepted the amendments that were put forward last night that sought to take care of the real problem: the drug dealers and the fraudsters. It would have been easy to subdivide it to keep the possibility for first-time non-violent offenders of minor offences to go to a halfway house. But no, they are throwing the baby out with the bath water for purely partisan purposes in a pre-election period.
It is a shame to see the Bloc Québécois that was once some force for social democracy in this country throwing its lot in with the right wing. It is a real shame.