Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to speak to the bill today, but before I do that, I will take a moment to acknowledge that it is the international day to end violence against women. It behooves each and every one of us in the House to reflect on that for a moment and think about the seriousness of this issue, which has an impact on our communities right across this country and right around the world. We always have to remind ourselves that there is a lot of work we could be doing in this area.
I will also take this opportunity to acknowledge the work done by my good friend, the member of Parliament for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, on this file. He is a parliamentarian for whom I have the utmost respect because he does his work on the Hill really well, does excellent work on the file, and from conversations I have had with people from his riding, I also know he is an amazing worker in his riding as well. On this particular file, not just on this legislation but other things that come before the committee on the issue of public safety, he is such a good researcher and spokesperson for us.
I am really struck by the title of the bill. It is a laudable title. I do not think there is anyone on either side of the House who would disagree with the slogan. However, we have a slogan that is a title for a piece of legislation, and that should cause us some concern: drug-free prisons act.
All of us want to have drug-free prisons. We also want to have drug-free communities. We also want to make sure we get rid of homelessness. I can think of so many issues I could put under this kind of bill. It is like talking about having a universal child care policy. Just saying we should have one does not make it happen; we actually have to take action.