Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the debate today.
Right from the get-go, I will display my non-credentials to the extent that I am not a lawyer. I am a layperson, so my comments will be very much from the point of view of what took place, why it took place, what the solution is and where we are in terms of the politics of it right now. I will leave it to the professionals to deal with the details of discussing the minutia of the bill.
Also, it is a real treat to be stand in this place to talk about what one could call a law and order bill from the government that we can actually support, that actually does something positive and is not just laden down and loaded with spin, taking care of the base and all the politics. It is nice to deal with the Criminal Code in a way that the average Canadian would not only understand but would support.
At the risk of my whole speech becoming a preamble, this may indeed be the very first time probably in my entire public life where I may not use all the time available. The odds are that will not happen, because I know what I am like, but there is a good chance I will conclude a little early. I am just letting you, Mr. Speaker, know that if that happens, I am not ill; nothing has gone wrong, even though it will be so uncharacteristic of me to give up any time available. However, this may indeed be one of those times.
With all of that, let me give some thoughts to Bill C-26 before us now. One cannot talk about the bill or these measures without giving a great deal of credit to, and I am not sure it has happened but I would hope government members have also acknowledged, the lead role that the NDP member for Trinity—Spadina has played on this file. I know it has been talked about on our side of the House. I certainly hope Hansard reflects that the government was gracious enough to acknowledge that at least half the credit for an improvement to our Criminal Code does go to the member for Trinity—Spadina in whose riding the original incident took place, and that gave rise to Bill C-26 and the amendments therein to the Criminal Code.
It has been mentioned a number of times, but it is pretty hard to give a speech without putting some context to it. As we know, on May 23, 2009, Mr. Chen, who owned the Lucky Moose Food Mart in Toronto, apprehended someone he believed had stolen from his store. When the person returned, Mr. Chen and two employees tied him up and locked him the back of the delivery van. When the police arrived, they charged Mr. Chen with kidnapping, carrying a dangerous weapon--which was a box cutter--assault and forcible confinement. By the way, the box cutter is pretty much a tool of the business. I think everybody understands that.
The crown prosecutors dropped the kidnapping and weapons charges, but they went ahead with the charges of forcible confinement and assault. This got a lot of attention from a lot of Canadians, for good reason. It the sort of circumstance that ordinary people could find themselves in, or someone they know could find themselves in, wheter friend, family, or neighbours. It is not the usual dealing with the intricacies of the law. This is pretty plain and simple. This is everyday living.
It is interesting that this area of the Criminal Code has been a problem before. In fact, there have been public comments made by judges in the matter around the issue of self-defence and defence of property and the rights to citizen's arrest.
It is interesting that in the case of R. v. McIntosh, Chief Justice Lamer stated that sections 34 and 35 were:
—highly technical, excessively detailed provisions deserving of much criticism. These provisions overlap, and are internally inconsistent in certain respects.
Most of us can get the gist of that. Lawyers in the room will understand, I am sure, the poetry to that language. However, I thought a more apropos quote for ordinary folks, and very much a colloquial interpretation of what the justice said, comes from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, and captures that same sentiment rather nicely. In Oliver Twist it says:
If the law supposes that, “said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass...
From time to time, even though that was written a very long time ago, it is quite appropriate. I think it is appropriate in this case—