Mr. Speaker, in my speech on Bill C-46 I will start by making a few comments on the bill itself. Then I will talk more about the issue of the lack of balance between the rights of the accused and the criminal and the rights of the victims in our justice system. Then I will talk about the prevention of crime and the Liberal record on the prevention of crime, which is not dealt with in any way in this piece of legislation or in any other piece of legislation this government has dealt with.
I will deal with these three areas. I will start by making a few comments on Bill C-46, an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding the production of records in sexual offence proceedings.
This bill is intended to strengthen the protection of privacy and equality rights of complainants in prosecutions for a variety of sexual offences. The added protection is gained through restricting defence lawyers' ability to apply for the production and disclosure of private documents such as medical, counselling and therapeutic records. That is what the bill is intended to do.
There is merit in this bill and I will be supporting it at least at second reading. I will have to see what happens in committee as the committee hammers out some of the possible impacts of this legislation before I can say that I will support it at third reading.
We will have to see what kinds of amendments come at report stage. Hopefully we will have a better interpretation of exactly what this legislation will do. However, there is merit in this bill. For that reason I will be supporting the bill at second reading.
I will not spend a lot of time talking about the bill itself. I would rather talk about the changes to the justice system in a general way, the things this bill does not deal with.
In the past, records sought by defence lawyers have included psychiatric, social welfare, employment, personal counselling and other private records. The fear of having such personal records revealed is believed to be a deterrent to victims to report sexual assaults against them.
That is what has been happening. There has been that concern. Probably a lot of sexual assaults have not been reported because of that. Therefore there is reason for action from the fear that such records may, at some future date, be called for as hampering the process of counselling and assistance provided to victims at support centres. That is part of the reason for the need.
The Reform Party supports legislation which provides increased protection for law-abiding citizens and victims of crime. We support this bill in principle. I will talk more about some concerns regarding this later.
We are also mindful of the longstanding tradition in the Canadian-British legal system that an accused person must have the opportunity to take a full and fair defence to any charges brought against them. Of course, that is the concern that people who are speaking out against this legislation are bringing forth.
They are concerned that the accused may not be able to get a proper hearing with this legislation put in place. It is a serious concern. They are asking questions that should be asked. I do not
feel we have the answer to a lot of these questions yet. We always must be concerned with the protection of the rights of the accused.
It is a matter of balance. I will speak more about this later. I feel in general in our justice system we have a very poor balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the criminals, people who have been found guilty of a crime, and the rights of the victims. The balance is not there.
I will spend much of my time today talking about that. I have a few more comments on the bill itself. This is a subject that was brought up by the hon. member for Port Moody-Coquitlam. In some sexual assault cases the accused is a former spouse or a spouse of the accuser. In some cases we found out that charges were laid just to give the accuser an added advantage in a fight taking place between the two over child custody. We are finding out more and more that these accusations often are not true.
The hon. member asked who the real victim is in these cases. Because of the increasing prevalence of false accusations being made we have to ensure that there is no victim under the law until the case is finally proven. That is an area of concern which I know other speakers will address later.
I would like to speak about two issues which are related to this legislation. The first is the balance in our justice system or the lack of balance between the rights of victims and the rights of the accused. The second is the prevention of crime and the inaction of this government in dealing with crime prevention.
The words have been uttered and the government has brought forward the issues but it has not dealt with crime prevention in an effective way. I will speak about some of Reform's proposals in this area. First I will speak to the balance in the justice system.
In general we do not have a proper balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims. Liberal governments in the 1970s deliberately changed the balance in the justice system. No longer are the rights of the victims and the protection of society top priorities. As a result of change, the protection of the accused and criminals has a higher priority in our justice system. The balance is clearly out of whack. It is important that we restore the balance which was there before Liberal governments and Conservative governments threw the balance out of whack.
In the 1970s a Liberal solicitor general said that for too long the top priority of the justice system had been the protection of society and that the rights and protection of criminals had not been made a high enough priority. Changes since that time have shown that Liberal governments believe that. They have demonstrated that in law time after time. They have distorted what Canadians see as the proper balance.
Several pieces of legislation passed by the current government have further thrown out the balance between the rights of society to be protected and the rights of criminals.
Bill C-65 is intended to protect endangered species of plants and animals. The intent is good, nobody would argue that. However, I have several concerns with the legislation. One of them has to do with a lack of balance. Another concern I have with the endangered species legislation is there is no compensation offered to land owners and land users if an endangered species is determined to be on their property. Under the legislation they could be required to pay dearly to protect endangered species with no compensation, the way the legislation is proposed. If amendments go through there will only be compensation through a charitable contribution process. There is no compensation, which could impose an incredible fiscal hardship on the land owner or land user.
Another concern is that it is a heavy handed interventionist piece of legislation. We have seen much of that from the government. What we need instead is co-operation. We found that land owners and land users co-operate on a voluntary basis to protect endangered species.
Another concern is in the area of balance in the rights of society, the rights of the accused and the rights of the criminal. It is interesting that under the legislation someone can anonymously accuse another citizen of harming an endangered species. The person who accuses can have his or her name kept completely confidential. The accused under the legislation would have absolutely no right at any time to know the name of the accuser or to face the accuser in court. That is the kind of legislation the government is putting forth. It is not something we can accept.
This type of legislation tramples on the rights of citizens, in many cases law-abiding citizens. For example, Bill C-68 on gun control tramples on the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Canadian citizens. There is heavy handed interventionist type of legislation in some cases and on the other side very narrow pieces of legislation like Bill C-46.
I will support the legislation. I await the final examination but it looks like a piece of legislation that will do some good.
The Liberal record since 1993 really did nothing to restore balance in the justice system. It has made it even worse in spite of the fact that it was not what Canadians wanted. If it was what Canadians wanted we would not see what we saw today, it being left to the mother and grandmother of Sylvain Leduc who was brutally murdered in Ottawa in October 1995. It was left to the
victims, the mother and grandmother, to try to restore balance in terms of sentencing and to give victims some rights.
Young offenders who are committing vicious crimes are being left out to walk the streets with very little punishment. This certainly does not provide a deterrent for people who might commit similar crimes in the future. It certainly does not protect society. These vicious murderers are walking the streets after spending a little time incarcerated. We would not see this if there were balance in our justice system right now and clearly there is not.
It is important to point out what Reform would do in this regard. In our fresh start platform we have put forth a substantial package of proposals to help restore balance. The first is a recognition that the justice system is out of balance and too heavily weighted in some cases in favour of the rights of the criminal rather than the rights of the accused.
One way of shifting the balance proposed by the hon. member for Fraser Valley West was to have in law a victim's bill of rights. This idea is well accepted and supported by Canadians and by the House. A document outlined 10 specific rights that must be given to victims which are not there now. Although it has been supported by the House, including the governing party, it has been almost a year and nothing has happened. We have a year and half until the government is required to hold an election. I dare say it will not be dealt with before an election is called. That is very sad. It shows the government does not place rebalancing of the justice system as a high priority.
I will read some of the points included in the bill that would help restore balance and give victims some rights. First, we want victims to have the right to be informed at every stage of the process, including being made aware of available victims' services. Routinely that does not happen. It happens for the accused, the criminal, someone found guilty of a crime.
I do not know how many court cases Clifford Olson, a mass murderer, has before our courts right now. He knows his rights.
