Joy Smith

[Criminal Code, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, as I was listening to the member opposite speak today about Bill C-65 and how important it is, Mr. Cadman's name keeps coming up all the time. I must admit that I was a little taken aback when the announcement was made on front pages of newspapers across the country that Cadman's private member's bill would be honoured and brought forward.

Yet this morning we are debating the bill and talking about the inadequacies. We are talking about the lack of enforcement. We are talking about things that should have been in the bill and things that our very honourable former member of Parliament had very close and near and dear to his heart.

We have to be very careful when we address issues in this House. As a former justice critic for Manitoba and as the mother of a police officer, I listened to so much rhetoric and eloquent speeches from the other side of this House from the government. It saddens me because we have, as I said before, within these last few days had members opposite vote against raising the age of consent and talk about trafficking in persons. We have had nothing about the gun registry being shut down to put those much needed forces on the street, those front line police officers. Now today we are dealing with the street racing issue.

Street racing is primarily a provincial jurisdiction until someone is seriously injured or killed. If anyone has ever been in a police force or seen how police work, they have a list of priorities before they get to the street racing. If there is a murder, a stabbing, or a break-in, they take priority. So we can have the cars racing on the streets until something happens. We do not have the police resources to deal with it.

Members opposite are not putting the teeth into the justice system, and not coming up with the solutions. It has been over a decade that this government has been in power. There is a lot of consternation among the public. In my city, we have the highest homicide rates in the country. Can the member please tell this House why Mr. Cadman's private bill was not adequate, in view of the discussions we have had this morning.

[Criminal Code, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to comment on this bill.

It is a regrettable time in the House of Commons. Just a few short days ago, members opposite voted against raising the age of consent from 14 to 16. It is a regrettable time when justice issues are so watered down that in actual fact it renders things very ineffective, especially in memory of the member of Parliament for Surrey North, who spent so much of his time fighting for justice issues.

I listened to the comments by members opposite. They talked about the private member's bill being less enforceable. The comment made by the member who just spoke was that he wants this to be enforceable. I have a problem with that when the gun registry money cannot be shut down to put front line officers on the street. The government is totally out of whack when it comes to the justice issues.

Could the member opposite please comment on, number one, how in the world this enforcement would occur when we do not have the police resources to take care of the everyday things that are happening? Number two, again, why this bill was watered down when the former member of Parliament was so zealous and so adamant about the specific things that needed to be in it?

[Criminal Code, October 17th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member has given many insightful comments in terms of immigration.

Here in the House of Commons we are the highest court and this is where the laws are made. We have the power to implement those laws. We have all recognized that the bill has a lot of merit and we all recognize that human trafficking has to stop.

In my view, it is a question of credibility. This year, when we tried to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16, it was defeated. There are many excuses for why it was defeated.

We also heard in this House that the gun registry, which has eaten up more than a billion dollars, is continuing but the money is not being put into the much needed police resources.

Earlier on in the year we had immigrants jumping the queue. We found out that people in the sex trade had preferential treatment on at least one occasion, if not more.

Would the member please comment on the immigration side of this? We have migrants, the most vulnerable people, coming from abroad hoping to have a new life, hoping to have an opportunity to become educated and better themselves. Would the member please comment on the credibility of the Liberal government on Bill C-49?

[Criminal Code, October 17th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, we in the House of Commons have all agreed that human trafficking has to be stopped.

A few short days ago we had a vote in the House where members opposite refused to support raising the age of sexual consent. A child in Canada at 14 years of age right now can legally have sex with an adult. Even part of the Criminal Code states that if the child turned out to be 12 years of age and the perpetrator thought the child was 14, the perpetrator could still get off the hook.

How can we talk about being serious about stopping this horrendous trafficking of human beings, when in the House the members opposite would not even agree to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 years of age?

This is a travesty in Canada. It just does not wash. We need the police resources and we need the laws to make sure that the bill is implemented in the way it should be implemented.

Could the member comment on that, please?

[Criminal Code, October 17th, 2005]

Truly, Madam Speaker, trafficking in human beings is a deplorable crime that needs to be addressed. It is gratifying to see in this House the concern about helping to stop this horrendous crime.

The bill put forward has many merits. However, earlier today we talked about police resources. No matter what bills we have, we need the resources to carry out those bills. We need the political will in terms of judges who give hard sentences to people who traffic and we need the joint police forces that are needed to find these people. Trafficking in persons internationally and nationally is something we have to come down on hard and fast.

Could the member opposite please comment on the issue of the lack of police resources and joint forces units and on taking the resources from the gun registry, the over $1 billion that we talked about today, and putting the resources into police forces?

We can sit here in the House of Commons and talk about stopping trafficking in humans, and we need to do that, but how are we going to put the resources on the street with front line police forces to make sure these criminals are apprehended and this terrible practice of trafficking in human beings, nationally and internationally, is stopped and stopped now?

[Firearms Registry, October 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, provincially, Manitoba reported the highest homicide rate in Canada for 2004. Just last week an innocent bystander, 17-year-old Philippe Hayart, was shot to death in a gang crossfire while walking down the street.

The government has sunk more than $1 billion into the gun registry, money that could be spent on front line police officers to make our streets safer in Manitoba.

When will the government realize that criminals do not register their guns? When will the government shut down the gun registry and put those resources toward front line police officers?

[Copyright Act, October 6th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, last week when I asked the government to support an educational amendment to Bill C-60, the minister responded by saying that they were putting this issue aside because it needed some discussion and some clarification. Educators and parents are ready to discuss and able to clarify.

Will the government do the right thing and commit to allowing public consultation prior to supporting an educational amendment in this bill?

[Copyright Act, September 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the education of the students in my riding of Kildonan--St. Paul and across Canada is at risk in this new school year because the government has avoided putting an educational amendment into the copyright law, Bill C-60. Schools cannot afford this added cost of paying for otherwise free materials from the Internet.

Will the government support an amendment to the legislation?

[Wage Earner Protection Program Act, September 29th, 2005]

Clearly, Mr. Speaker, students going through post-secondary school nowadays go through great hardship in many respects, because they get loans, they have to go out in the workforce and they have to pay them back. That aspect of the bill is being looked at right now and we should not be hasty in passing the bill until we have these questions answered.

I agree that students need to get all the help they can get, but the proof has to be concrete. They cannot just make up a story that they are going through hardship. It has to be concrete. I went through nine years of university and paid for every cent of it. It took me an awful long time. In our family we have six children and we have put them all through post-secondary education.

I can tell the member that this can raise some real questions. I think the intent of the bill and the intent of what members of the House are trying to do at this point is to be reasonable and to make things possible for people to be successful.

The one thing I do like about the bill is that I can see an opening for businesses to become viable if they have the opportunity to restructure. I can see in the bill that wage earners will be able to get their money if something happens. I can see also the student loan aspect, where students who are going through hardship are not put in an impossible position.

This is why I strongly recommend public hearings: so that we can get all these questions answered and so it is not done in a rushed way.

[Wage Earner Protection Program Act, September 29th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is viable to look at that very aspect, because it does not necessarily need to have the prioritizing change, which could be done in another way.

There are many questions centred around this bill right now. The member brought up what is really the most important point: the employees who work in a company. It is better to have a company able to restructure, to set things up so it can continue to be a viable business. It is better if the workers can still be employed to do that.

The member makes a good point. This is something that needs to be examined. I would expect that during hearings and when amendments are made to this bill this is one aspect which we as a House should and could take a very close and serious look at.