Myron Thompson

[Petitions, October 20th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table two petitions with hundreds of signatures from people throughout my riding and other parts of the great province of Alberta calling on Parliament to reopen the issue of marriage and to repeal or amend the Marriage for Civil Purposes Act in order to promote and defend marriage as the lawful union of one man and one women to the exclusion of all others.

[Young Offenders, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we all know that the vast majority of young people today are law abiding citizens. Unfortunately, there is a small percentage of young offenders who insist on damaging property and hurting others.

In my riding alone, the city of Airdrie is experiencing an increase in vandalism and gang activities over the past several months. In the town of Didsbury the people are recovering from a recent incident of animal abuse by young offenders in their community.

The mayors in these towns are outraged and frustrated with our federal system since it is impossible to hold these minors accountable for their actions. I know they are doing their best to combat these problems, but they are asking for a review of a number of sections within the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

I want to reassure these communities that Canada's new government is hearing their call for help. I know that our new justice minister is preparing to review this act and change is coming in the not too distant future.

Soon our youth justice system will once again promote respect and responsibility and that the protection of the innocent will become once again a high Canadian priority.

[An Act to Amend Certain Acts in Relation to DNA Identification, October 3rd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, when the Canadian public watches the debate on CPAC throughout the country, a number of them do really get confused when we are talking about Bill C-18. We are referring to what is happening with Bill C-13 and how it relates to Bill C-72. It gets a little confusing and I would like specific direction on this issue.

As the member knows, for the many years that I have been here, I have been fighting very hard to see tougher strategies to look after crimes against children, particularly for those who sexually assault children and pornographers.

I wonder if the member could comment specifically how Bill C-18 will affect those particular crimes.

[Business of Supply, September 28th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I hope I can do it in 30 seconds.

The member talked about violence against women and children. Since 1993 I too have been pushing hard in this House to bring in some tough legislation to deal with men in particular, because the majority of them are men, who would dare seriously assault women and children. It makes me very angry when they do that.

I have seen in the last 13 years that we have come to some fairly decent decisions to now where I have seen grain farmers go to jail for selling their grain, an elk poacher go to jail for shooting an elk and in the same week, two cases of serious abuse and assault on a child and one on a woman, and the perpetrators receive house arrest and community service. Out of these cases, a very large majority, it was reported to the justice committee last week, are getting house arrest and community service.

I am suggesting that the member, based on her speech, is prepared to support this government's Bill C-9. Is the member going to support the bill that would put those people in jail? Serious crime deserves serious time.

[Petitions, September 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I also have a petition signed by several hundred people within my riding of Wild Rose calling upon the government to take all measures necessary to immediately raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 years of age.

[Petitions, September 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to table today. The first is on behalf of a number of people from across the country calling upon Parliament to cause the Canadian armed forces to immediately reinstate the soldier apprentice training program.

[Criminal Code, September 18th, 2006]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-351, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (review of parole ineligibility) and to amend other Acts in consequence.

Mr. Speaker, once again it gives me pleasure to reintroduce a bill that was brought forward in the House in the 1990s by a former member of the Liberal Party, John Nunziata. I would like to bring the bill forward today. In the 1990s the bill passed through the House, but unfortunately died on the order paper before it became law.

This enactment would amend the Criminal Code to repeal section 745.6 of the code, often referred to as the faint hope clause, which allows a person sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason or murder to apply after 15 years for a reduction in the period of parole eligibility. This bill would eliminate that from the Criminal Code and thus bring a little more truth to sentencing.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Criminal Code, September 18th, 2006]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-350, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (bail for persons charged with violent offences), the Extradition Act and the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to table this private member's bill today on behalf of a number of victims across the country who have been asking for this judgment for some time.

This enactment would repeal section 522 of the Criminal Code to remove the power of a judge of a superior court of criminal jurisdiction to grant interim release to a person accused of one of the very serious offences listed in section 469. That list is quite extensive, everything from treason to murder, serious sexual assaults, and many other very violent and very serious charges.

This would eliminate bailing these people out once they were arrested and charged, and thus would provide better safety to our communities.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Business of Supply, June 19th, 2006]

So was that report.

[Business of Supply, June 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 I came to this House with the Reform Party as the official opposition. In 1993 we came as the third party, but then we made official opposition under the leadership of Preston Manning. He asked me in 1997 to do some work across the country with aboriginal communities, dealing with grassroots natives from coast to coast.

In 1997, 1998 and 1999, I spent nearly two and a half years travelling the country, locating people in every province from the grassroots level, calling for accountability. The hon. Leader of the Opposition may remember such names as Leona Freid, the leader from a Manitoba grassroots community, the work on Aboriginals for Financial Accountability with Roy Littlechief, and a whole bunch of names I could bring up from every province.

At the end of that period of time, all of the grassroots people got together and filled out a very huge report about the problems on the reserves and the squalor. I want this leader to know that I went into their homes. I spent time sharing bread with people living in squalor. What little they had, they were willing to share.

We begged the government at that time. I asked questions numerous times, as did many of my colleagues, explaining the situation and asking the Liberals to take that report, look at it, and really start dealing with the down to earth problems. In every election, four of them in a row, there was a promise in every throne speech that the Liberals were going to address the squalor that was so terrible and they were going to do it in their budgets, and it only got worse. From 1993 to 2006, it got worse.

Could the member explain to me why they ignored the grassroots people across this country and that beautiful report they put together, which the minister in this party has finally taken down, blown the dust from it and had a look at?