Candice Bergen

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the majority of my colleague's comments.

It is very disappointing to see the NDP once again oppose an important piece of legislation that would give the RCMP the tools that it needs to fight things such as sexual harassment. The NDP is introducing this amendment to change the short title of the bill, which is enhancing RCMP accountability, which is appropriate. It is not called making perfect the RCMP or fixing all problems within the RCMP or there will never be any other issues within the RCMP. Those are not the title. The title is enhancing accountability. The bill is a balanced and practical approach that would give the RCMP the tools that it needs to help change some of the things that need to be changed within the organization.

How can that member in good conscience rise in the House and say that he supports ending harassment and sexual harassment within the RCMP and yet vote against this important tool, which the RCMP has asked us for?

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I did not view the committee meetings as unproductive and too short. In fact, my recollection was there was at least one meeting where we all finished asking questions of the witnesses and had a bit of time left. We were given ample opportunity to ask fulsome questions and we received great feedback from the witnesses.

My question, though, for the hon. member is this. We have talked at length about the issue of sexual harassment, how to deal with it and the attempts this bill makes to modernize the RCMP so it can deal with sexual harassment. We also talked at length about how no government had recognized, even my hon. colleague on the Liberal side when his party was in government, that bills do not have this level of detail of using terms like harassment or sexual harassment. It is not the norm.

After hearing that, would the NDP reconsider its position? I understand that maybe the members did not realize that. Why throw the bill out because one word is missing, which is actually will not help with the bill, and instead support it so we can address sexual harassment in the RCMP?

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to speak because both of my hon. colleagues are wrong in terms of who will investigate serious incidents.

What our bill does, and we received overwhelming support for this plan, is that there would be investigative bodies within specific provinces. Yes, not every province has an investigative body, but investigative bodies that are established in provinces would take over the investigation of serious incidents within the RCMP. If there is no investigative body, then it would be another investigative body within that province, so maybe a jurisdictional police, a department, again, outside of the RCMP.

The third option would be the RCMP, but we believe that both of these steps would address the issue of police investigating police. I am happy to have the opportunity to inform both of my hon. colleagues of that part of the bill.

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague on the Liberal side for his comments and would like to extend my season's greetings to him. It has been a pleasure to work with him over this last year and I certainly appreciate his very well thought out and articulate comments on the bill.

In committee, we heard witnesses. We certainly heard the positive parts of the bill and we heard some critiques, and we responded to that. I might have missed this in his comments, but could the member comment further on the issue of police investigating police?

We tried to address that in the bill. However, the fact is that there is a mechanism for police who are involved in serious incidents. There is an outside body and several choices whereby they can be investigated, and it would not be the police investigating themselves. I wonder if the member could comment on that. Again, I apologize if I did miss it in his speech.

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister feel the same sense of frustration that I and many of us do on this side of the House when day after day we hear opposition members ask about sexual harassment and harassment within the RCMP? We have before us a good bill and, with the amendments, a better bill that would respond not only to harassment but civilian complaints and serious investigations, but the NDP will not support it. My concern is that, when we come back in the winter, they will keep asking questions about ways to fix these problems that they refuse to support.

[Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I first want to extend season's greetings and merry Christmas to my colleagues whom I have been working with at the public safety committee. We have worked very well together. Although we do not agree on a lot, we found a way to work together very cordially. I just want to extend my appreciation for that and my wishes for the season.

I am disappointed to hear my hon. colleague's comments. He identified some of the main challenges that we as a government identified in working together with our colleagues who have been active police officers. We have 13 of them in our caucus. We have worked together with the commissioner and stakeholders to best address some of the challenges within the RCMP.

The bill is not perfect because, to really address this, we need to see a cultural change within the RCMP. Nonetheless, what we are proposing are fundamental changes supported by others. We heard testimony supporting our changes in the public complaints area and support for our addressing serious incident investigations. Here I would point out that no witnesses came forward to support the NDP proposal to create one body to investigate police. Hence, I am surprised that my colleague would even mention it. I am wondering why he is even bringing it up at this time.

[Public Safety, December 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, all of us are on the same page with respect to violence against women and making our communities safer and stronger. I appreciate the words of the Prime Minister. We have been very clear in regard to firearms. We will not be eliminating the prohibited category of firearms.

We have heard from the Minister for Status of Women about the good work we have been doing to help stop violence against women. We want to make sure that people do not get guns who should not have guns, and that the people who commit violent acts are in jail. We want to make sure women have shelter.

Together, we want to protect the women in this country.

[Public Safety, December 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, our government is, as all Canadians are, very concerned with the issue of bullying and the effect that it has on young people and families in Canada.

We support the work that is ongoing in two parliamentary committees. We believe it is time to act. We believe it is not time to study. That is why we are supporting initiatives through the RCMP, through Health Canada and through other initiatives in public safety.

[New Democratic Party of Canada, November 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable that the NDP members continually stand in the House and try to deny their plans for a $21 billion job-killing carbon tax. Why will they not just come clean? We can all see it stated on page 4 of their party platform. It clearly states that the NDP will impose a carbon tax on all Canadians.

My riding of Portage—Lisgar is not buying their denials, nor are the rest of Canadians, especially when we all see that the NDP carbon tax will raise the price of everything for Canadians, including gas, groceries, electricity and the Christmas trees we will be buying over the next few weeks. Everything we purchase will go up because of the NDP carbon tax.

Our government has a low-tax plan for jobs, growth and prosperity. Our plan is working. I can assure the House that all of us on this side of the House will continue to oppose the NDP job-killing carbon tax. We will stand up for jobs, prosperity and success for all Canadians.

[Public Safety, November 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, our border security does an excellent job of making sure that legitimate trade and travel is facilitated, while at the same time protecting our borders from illegitimate and illegal operations.

If the member has something he wants to discuss, we are always open to having discussions to see where we can help and work together.