Mr. Speaker, I rise to contribute to the debate today. It is a sad occasion and an unfortunate situation for the member and his family, who are directly affected. I am sure none of us in the House take any pleasure in having to engage in debates of this nature. However, we as parliamentarians have been seized with the responsibility of dealing with this issue. While there are many pressing issues in this country that require our attention, we have to make a decision on the issue before us today.
We cannot ignore the facts. This particular issue has been in the media for quite some time. It goes back to 2006. It has been well debated in many circles by many pundits through many broadcasts. There have been a lot of opinions on this issue, as there were on the issue of Peter Penashue, the former member for Labrador.
We live in a country that is governed by the rule of law. We live in a country that takes the rule of law seriously. It is what makes us strong as a country. It is what makes us strong as a democracy. Therefore, when incidents like this happen, and we are confronted with a decision, we do not have a choice. We cannot suddenly ignore the law or bend the law that has been set in this country because of a particular circumstance for a particular person, a particular occupation, or a particular profession.
In this case, an independent, third-party, objective process has been engaged in. We have seen the courts at work. We have seen concerns expressed. We have seen the rule of law being conducted. Witnesses were called. We heard testimony from individuals who were impacted. All of this occurred in an independent, objective, third-party way that was removed from the House of Commons. It is called justice in this country. It is called the judiciary system, which makes those decisions.
Both parties had legal representation. They were able to bring forward their arguments and the facts. At the end of the day, the court rendered its decision. We have confidence in our legal system to make the right decisions, and we have no reason to believe that this was not the case. On October 31, we had a decision taken by the court, after a tremendous amount of consideration, and we have the verdict we have today. Parliamentarians are now left to look at how we proceed from here.
It is not an easy decision. I previously sat for a number of years in the House of Assembly in Newfoundland and Labrador. I sat through a process that saw four of my colleagues in that chamber convicted and sentenced to serve time. It had to do with illegal spending, how budgets were conducted, and what was appropriate or inappropriate.
This is not a new issue. It is a different issue. It is a different chamber. However, it is not unlike the process in the House of Assembly I served in.
In this particular case, as parliamentarians, we have to look at the sections of the law that govern us.
We have to look at the verdict that has been given on October 31. We have to look at what the impact of that is on the member, and while we take no pleasure in having to look at motions in the House today that look at suspending or expelling the member simply because of the verdict, we have no choice.
In my opinion, our decision should be very clear. When we look at section 443 of the Canada Elections Act, and we look at the fact that the member has been convicted, the next course of action would be to have the member expelled. I know that members opposite want to talk about going through this appeal or that appeal, and those standards are out there, but unless we are going to change the rule of law in the country today that we are governed by, it is very clear that upon conviction a member would be expelled. That is really what this debate in the House is coming down to.
It is no longer a debate of whether it should go to committee and be reviewed. It has come down to a debate among members on whether we should be expelling the member based on the conviction, according to section 443 of the Canada Elections Act and what it states, or whether we should not. Should we give him an opportunity to go through appeals and other processes, but can anyone dispute the fact that we have already had an independent third party process? We have already gone through the court system. A verdict was given on October 31 and the member was convicted.
The decision before us is obvious. My colleague from Winnipeg North's amendment was not accepted to be voted upon by the House. It is unfortunate because his reference to subsection 502(3) is directly related to corruption practices and what happens when there is a conviction for a committed offence and where there are legal and corrupt practices by a member. It is very clear.
It is unfortunate that what I am seeing is a tangled web around this whole issue, where it should not be. If every member were to read these sections of the act and look at the conviction that was passed down on October 31, I do not think we would even be having the kind of debate we are having right now. We would be moving to what we see as expelling the member based on the rule of law under which we pass and practice in this country.
I move:
That the amendment be further amended by deleting the words:
“should a conviction under section 443 of the Canada Elections Act not be set aside by a competent authority and no further rights of appeal remain available to the Member, together with the appropriate Order, in those circumstances, for the Speaker to issue his warrant to the Chief Electoral Officer for the issue of a writ for the election of a Member to serve in the present Parliament for the electoral district of Peterborough;”