Mr. Speaker, why should Clifford Olson even be allowed to apply for release, period? Why, why, why? Because the government has allowed that type of system to ferment here.
Government members can try to dress this up with all the pretty flowers and all the pretty words but the fact is that they are still kicking people out through the system. They are giving that over to the provinces; there is no doubt about that. But why? Why would they even be thinking about that? Why would they not be thinking of something else instead? We have tried for years with the Liberal way and the Conservative way to address crime, to address reoffenders. Actually, many of the good programs have been taken out of the penal system. It is pretty tough in some areas to learn a trade in prison because of all the other programs that are in place like weight lifting, swimming, tennis and golf.
When people get out of prison they might like to be able to say they can do welding, mechanics or iron work, something where they may stand a chance of a job placement and contribute to the system instead of abusing it. This has absolutely nothing to do with that. I could readily support bills that did that sort of thing. No one in the Reform Party would have trouble supporting bills like that.
Instead we get this feel good, fuzzy-wuzzy thing: "We will release you early. We will kick you out. We will make sure you do not do your sentence. We will give you a temporary release for anything you like". To me that is not what prison is for. People are normally put in prison because they broke the law, not because they obeyed the law. In the odd case that may happen, but it is very, very seldom. In fact, I have not heard of one.
I was always led to believe that if you do the crime, you do the time. That does not seem to be the case any more. We do not have that. Now it is: You do the crime and we will look after you for life. You do not have to worry about anything. Step out of jail and we will just keep right on looking after you. We will make sure that your wants and needs are met, but if there is something we cannot supply, you just go right back out and commit a crime. That seems to have been the attitude over the last 25 years.
When we were young I guess we all thought we were tough and nothing would ever happen to us and we would get along just fine. But as tough as guys thought they were in my day, they always stood aside for the elderly and helped the elderly and had respect for the disabled and helped in any way they could. Today we do not see any of that. Why? Because there is nothing in place. Penal systems are looked upon as a joke.
I understand that many prisoners are trying to get extradited back to Canada from the United States and other countries to serve their time.