Lynn Myers

[Correctional Service Canada, April 6th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday I had the opportunity to visit Collins Bay medium security penitentiary and the Frontenac minimum security institution as part of CBC's Big Picture on corrections in Canada.

During my tour of the institutions I witnessed firsthand the life of Canada's incarcerated offenders. I met and spoke with many inmates on the road to rehabilitation and with the men and women who daily do great work in this dangerous and unappreciated environment.

There is another group of individuals I met that deserves recognition and that is the hundreds of volunteers who give generously of their time in helping inmates turn their lives around. They are people like Don Andrychuk, a retired school teacher who helps in the Collins Bay learning centre by teaching basic skills to offenders.

It is these volunteers who bring a touch of compassion and humanity to a group of individuals that is often overlooked by the rest of society.

I extend my congratulations to Don and everyone like him and encourage Corrections Canada to keep up the good work.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with some interest to the member opposite. It seems to me that it was not unlike the usual position of the reform alliance, that it sees things in black and white instead of with all the nuances, especially in such an important area where there are incredible nuances when it comes to our young people and the protection of society and the security of our communities, our neighbourhoods, our provinces and our country.

I remind him, as I remind all members in the House, that not only is overall crime dropping but crime among our young people is declining. Why is that? It is because we have in place and we continue as a government to put in place the kinds of measures that are appropriate given the circumstances of the 21st century.

One thing I do know is that our young people have enormous capability to rehabilitate. Given the right circumstances and the right assistance, the kind of backing and crime prevention members of the government have put into place, we are on the right track.

Instead of making criminals out of young people as they would do, instead of dropping the age and making them pay and pay big, that real vengeance mentality which it seems only the reform alliance people have, and instead of trying to do those kinds of things in the most audacious fashion, we should be doing the things we are doing at present: rehabilitating with crime prevention and the kinds of programs necessary.

Would publishing names, for example, as they would do, embarrass the parents? Would it embarrass siblings so that when they go to school they get it rubbed in their faces? I do not think so.

That is not our Canada. It is not my Canada. I do not believe it is most Canadians' Canada. We want to ensure a good and balanced system. We want an equilibrium kind of system and that is what the government is presenting today.

Given the member's speech and his background, why do members of the reform alliance party in general want to fearmonger and scare Canadians into somehow believing that crime is out of control when it is not? What do they hope to gain by that kind of nonsense?

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, why would we want an American style system? Why would we go down that path? Why would that member in particular and the Alliance in general want to advocate an American style system where kids walk into schools, pull guns and shoot other kids? Why in God's name would they advocate that?

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I sat and listened to the member opposite speak and I wondered in my own mind what it is with the reformed Alliance people that they love things American.

During the election we had members opposite talk about a two tier health system like the American system. We knew they were going to strip away environmental protection laws, sort of like the Americans as well. They would rip apart the judicial system. They would scrap our great charter of rights and freedoms. They would go and rip apart the supply management system. They would do all those kinds of things in the name of something great and good that is American. I just do not understand.

Here we have the audacity of the member opposite to somehow link our young people with guns. I think what he actually said was that to set them back on the right road we should give them a gun. We have to think about this for a minute. We just saw not so long ago in California, not once but twice, kids walking into schools with guns. As a former school teacher and a former head of the Waterloo Regional Police, this is not the Canadian way. This is not the way we should be going in terms of our young people, by giving them a gun. It is outrageous and it is not in keeping with the values of our great country.

My question is simple. Why is it that the reformed Alliance people always, and this member in particular, want to somehow connect American style guns with our justice system? It does not make sense.

[Points Of Order, March 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, March 16, following question period, a point of order was raised concerning language used as recorded on page 1769 of Hansard .

I wish to withdraw the word that gave rise to the point of order and to apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused you or the House.

[Criminal Code, March 16th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak today to private member's bill, Bill C-240, respecting the rights of offenders to legally change their names.

The ability to propose measures that are not among the government's priorities is an important element of parliament, one that can from time to time lead to constructive changes that have been hoped for. The government is open to suggestions from those who sincerely believe they are proposing positive and significant changes.

In this case, the sponsor of the bill has brought an idea to the wrong legislative body. The process and the policies that govern legal name changes reside within the mandates of the provincial governments. Each province has an official registrar or equivalent that grants or denies name changes and registers these changes in official records. The federal government does not have jurisdiction in this area.

That said, I think the goals of the bill are of interest to all members of the House. We all would agree that the need to keep track of convicted offenders is an integral part of the public safety equation on which the government stands firm. It is especially a concern if an offender changes his or her name in an attempt to hide from authorities.

It is of course critically important that government and police agencies across the country have the ability to track offenders released from our penal institutions. That cannot be overemphasized, and the government stands firm in its resolve to ensure that is the case. That is precisely why the government has invested in important and useful tools to keep track of offenders.

We need only look at the Canadian Police Information Centre, CPIC, and the national DNA databank as examples. The Canadian government has a national database containing information on all individuals who have been convicted of an indictable offence in Canada. It includes birth names, names chosen later in life, aliases and any other pertinent information with respect to the individual.

That database is called CPIC and it is maintained by our national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is available to all police agencies across Canada. I can assure this House that CPIC has been a national success story in law enforcement since it first began operation in 1972. We continue to provide the necessary resources and tools, and it has become the envy of police forces around the world.

Let me tell the House why. CPIC is the primary tool used to identify suspects, to access outstanding warrants and restraining orders, to screen out sex offenders from jobs involving contact with children and to flag files of dangerous offenders. It is a database that serves over 60,000 law enforcement officers in each province and territory and it handles over 100 million queries from 15,000 points of access.

CPIC is linked to over 400 criminal justice agencies in Canada as well as internationally, and the government has committed millions of dollars to upgrade and renew CPIC to ensure it remains a valuable resource, which it is.

The government has also put in place another mechanism to identify some of Canada's most serious and repeat offenders: the national DNA databank. This is a tool that has, in my view and in the view of the government, revolutionized the way police work is done in Canada today. It is already proving to be a very valuable tool with respect to public safety.

The DNA databank is maintained by the RCMP. It contains a crime scene index that includes DNA profiles from unsolved crime scenes as well as a convicted offenders index containing DNA profiles from serious and repeat offenders. It has been in place since last June as a result of the wisdom and foresight of our government. It has already had an unprecedented number of matches between crime scenes and convicted offenders and it is helping police conduct their investigations more effectively and efficiently.

As you can see, Madam Speaker, the national DNA bank is yet another example of how the government is keeping tabs on criminals.

My point, and the reason the government has invested in these tools, is simple. Because of leading edge technology at our disposal, like CPIC and the DNA databank, we effectively keep track of offenders in a number of ways and not only through their names. We also use fingerprints and even their DNA. We do not, I repeat, do not, simply rely on criminals to tell us their proper names. That would be pretty naive.

The reality for criminals in Canada is that they can run but they cannot hide. This is especially important for victims of crime. I can assure you, Madam Speaker, and all members in the House, indeed, all Canadians, that it is the victims who are our first concern.

I have an enormous amount of sympathy for victims. I worked with them when I was chair of the Waterloo Regional Police Service and I can tell members that because victims are involved in our criminal justice system through no fault of their own, we should be there for them. While it is true that many wish to hear nothing further from their perpetrators, there are also countless victims who wish to be kept informed of what happens to offenders once they enter a federal penitentiary. In those cases, then, victims are most certainly brought into the process by Correctional Service Canada as well as the National Parole Board. Each of these agencies has active victim outreach programs which, upon the victim's request, provide information about the location of the offender, upcoming hearings, transfers, conditional release dates and other details.

It is important to realize that the agencies within the criminal justice system also talk to each other. Correctional Service Canada, for example, and the National Parole Board work closely with the RCMP to provide information that is relevant, important and of interest to the CPIC people.

It is the practice of Correctional Service Canada to provide information in each instance where an offender succeeds in formally changing his or her name. What that means is that all authorities who have a key role to play in the administration of an offender's sentence have access to information about the offender which is continually updated with important information the police authorities need to know.

On the other side of the issue are those offenders who make an effort to rehabilitate themselves and who want to put their troubled pasts behind them. These are the offenders who participate in programs that are available to them in the criminal justice system. These are the offenders who participate in mental health programs, literacy programs and educational opportunities. These are the offenders who try to make, and hopefully do make, an honest effort to put their pasts behind them, move on to a new and law abiding life and reintegrate into society.

I speak of the majority of offenders when I mention those people. Upon their return to the community some of these individuals seek anonymity to break the ties with their past so that they can make a fresh start. Regardless, the appropriate authorities still have a record of those people.

It is important to realize that even if offenders succeed in changing their names through a provincial government registry, that information is added to our existing federal government databases. The information is maintained by our national police force and shared with local police services across Canada.

In conclusion, it is my belief and the belief of the government that with the DNA databank, CPIC and the co-operation of the RCMP and municipal and provincial police services across this great country, we already have the tools to ensure these efforts are maintained in a positive way.

I point out again, as I did at the beginning, that it is beyond the jurisdiction of parliament to deal with this issue. For those reasons, then, I do not support Bill C-240 and I ask all hon. members in the House to do the same.

[Points Of Order, March 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, often I hear a number of things from the opposition, especially the reform alliance people, to which I yell, rubbish.

[Immigration, March 16th, 2001]

Every immigrant, not just Italians. That's racist.

[Supply, March 15th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the member opposite who in his usual eloquent and studied fashion made some interesting points.

If we look at the facts with respect to this particular issue, and more to the point in terms of Quebec, the Canadian government ensures that Quebec's interests are very much assured in this particular area, and in other areas as well, because of our economic and political clout, and quite frankly because of our reputation around the world.

I point out that I think Quebecers understand the importance of a federal system and how federalism works in the country. I remind the hon. member that in the last 20 years Quebecers' standard of living has risen 30%, as it has in other parts of Canada, such as in Ontario. I also point out that the unemployment rate in Quebec has dropped to 8.5%.

Most recently the CHST transferred $1.5 billion from the federal treasury. It represented 80% of all the money that was given in the country. An additional $429 million will be given over as soon as the ceiling on the equalization payments has been eliminated.

My point is simple, Quebecers understand the benefits of being in this great country called Canada.

I would ask the member a specific question, contrary to his sovereignist kind of protestations. Over the last number of years the softwood lumber industry and the sales to the United States from Quebec have gone from 20% to 25%. That is great news for Quebecers. How does he explain that? If things are so terrible and the Canadian government, as he seems to indicate, cannot do its work right, how can that be?

The hon. member opposite should be congratulating the government and saying what a good job the government, and especially the minister, is doing on this important file. At the end of the day it is good news not only for Quebecers, but for people in British Columbia, Alberta and others as well. It underscores the commitment of the government in this very important area to ensure that all Canadians benefit, especially Quebecers. Sales have gone from 20% to 25%. That is good news, and we should be congratulating everyone involved.

[Supply, March 13th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I think it is a known fact in the House and certainly I believe in Simcoe North and elsewhere throughout Ontario and Canada, that the hon. member who just spoke is a leading advocate when it comes to crime prevention and rehabilitation. At the end of his speech he spoke eloquently about that.

Over the last little while and certainly today again we have heard from the reformed Alliance people the knee-jerk kind of reactionary, simplistic view that they hold with respect to issues regarding law and order. It really is unbelievable.

Registries do not work, they said. They are too bureaucratic, they said. Registries are too expensive, they said. They are too expensive to justify the crimes they prevent, they said. They will not work if people are expected to voluntarily register. There it is. There the reformed Alliance people go again, saying one thing when it suits their purposes and quite another when it suits other purposes, and usually in different parts of the country. Gee whiz, is that not always the way they are?

My question to the hon. member for Simcoe North is this: would he go on to elaborate a little about the benefits of crime prevention and the good work the government has done in that area? I know that he has worked hard and has done so, rightly so.