David Lametti

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the bill was introduced on October 18, 2018, with second reading debate on October 29, 2018. The justice committee studied it and concurred in a report stage and third reading debate that began on March 18, 2019.

I put it to the hon. member that there has been ample opportunity for members to speak to the bill and have an impact on it. There were three hours of debate at the second reading stage, there was no report stage debate, and there was an hour of debate at third reading.

Members in the House who have wanted to speak on the bill and make their views known have had ample opportunity to do so.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated, I think there is a high degree of consensus on all sides of the House for this bill. I disagree with the hon. member's interpretation of events over the last two years, roughly, with regard to the way in which this bill proceeded. I do agree on the contribution made by the member for Calgary Nose Hill with a private member's bill that covers one of the two subject matters addressed in this bill. However, I think Canadians across Canada are waiting for this bill to get through.

Again, sharing the sentiment that there is much more work to be done, we feel it is time to get this bill through the House of Commons, the Senate and on to royal assent, such that we can move on to a larger look at the question of animal rights in this country.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question.

I do not know the answer to his question. As I said, I am not privy to party leaders' negotiations about time allocation and procedures.

Adopting this bill is one of our government's priorities. It is important to people across Canada. Animals will be better off because of this bill.

This is a very specific bill, and we have reached consensus on both those aspects. The nearly unanimous support of the House indicates that we will be able to go ahead with this.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we would like to get this bill through this Parliament because a number of Canadians are waiting for it. I agree with the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton that this is a long-overdue response to the D.L.W. decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. I share that sentiment completely. Therefore, we are moving to get the debate done. We know that there is a high degree of support.

MPs have had a great deal of time in first reading, second reading and committee work to have an impact on this bill. They have had a positive impact on this bill. It is time to move on.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his work on the committee. It brought valuable improvements to the bill, and I certainly enjoy my interactions with the hon. member, both in the House and at committee.

It is true that we incorporated a private member's bill from the member for Calgary Nose Hill. I thanked her for that contribution previously in answer to her question. However, we added another important element to the bill, which was animal fighting. That was also something we felt we could target quite clearly, and for which there was a great deal of support. It would also help us indirectly combat organized crime, which is often part of the animal fighting context.

I would say to the hon. member that we are doing our best to get this through the House as best we can, given the negotiations that happened. As I have just said, I am not privy to those negotiations. We feel this is the best way to move forward to get this done.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I will respond to part of the question. Certainly my commitment as Minister of Justice, moving forward, is to undertake a more comprehensive review of the question of animal rights more generally. I have done that publicly now on a number of occasions, both in front of the committee and in front of a round table hosted by my colleague, the member for Parkdale—High Park, with a number of leading animal rights advocates in Toronto.

I understand the importance, and I recognize, as the member has intimated, that this is a rather narrow bill. It is very narrow in scope. We need to do a lot more.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we felt these two issues were fairly well agreed upon on all sides of this House, therefore we could get it through. We also felt that the committee work that would be done on this, specifically in front of the justice committee, would build a better bill. That is precisely what happened. The three recommendations made by the justice committee helped a great deal to improve the bill.

With respect to this particular bill, which is what we are talking about today, we felt this was the best way to move forward.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot speak to negotiations that went on with this bill or any other bill. That is not one of my functions in this House. What I can say is that there is a wide degree of support for it, not just in this House but also across Canada. We have managed to unify the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the Chicken Farmers of Canada, the Canadian Pork Council, the Egg Farmers of Canada, the Canadian Hatching Egg Producers, the Turkey Farmers of Canada, the Canadian Bison Association, the Canada Mink Breeders Association and the Canadian Sheep Federation.

My name gets tagged on a lot of social media, with people asking where this bill is, why it is not happening and why the opposition is stalling. I have to respond to that in some personal way. We are moving forward with this bill because it is something that has a great deal of support, and we intend to get it through.

[Criminal Code, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her engagement on this issue in her private member's bill, Bill C-388, which took up one of the central issues of this bill.

It is unfortunate that we are going to time allocation. I cannot speak to the negotiations that went on, but I can say that we would like to see this bill through. As the hon. member has pointed out, there is a great deal of support on all sides of the House for this bill. The work that was done in committee was exemplary in terms of bringing forward amendments that were accepted, and we feel this bill needs to move forward, so we are using time allocation because we have to.

[Justice, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said a number of times today, the Department of Justice co-operated with the court and fulfilled its obligations for the production of third party documents. There were thousands of documents. Yes, it took time, but we fulfilled our obligation to the court.

The system of justice in Canada is working. The Public Prosecution Service made an independent decision to stay proceedings based on the evidence it had in front of it. It took the initial decision to proceed with the case based on evidence raised by another institution—