Peter Van Loan

[Justice, October 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians were surprised to learn about a system called accelerated parole review. Under that system, when non-violent, first-time offenders, major fraudsters and drug dealers are convicted for the first time, they are allowed to go out on day parole at one-sixth of their sentence and full parole at one-third of their sentence, and, what is more, it is virtually automatic. Even if the Parole Board believes they will go right back out and do the same thing all over again, it has no choice but to release them on the street.

Canadians think that is wrong. It offends their sense of justice. It offends us, too, which is why we are taking action today to fix it.

[Search and Rescue, October 22nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the outstanding work done by the volunteers. These are volunteers who do land search and rescue. Federal responsibility for marine and aerial search and rescue has been in place for quite some time.

Traditionally, land search and rescue has been a provincial and local responsibility. That being said, my office did contact the organization today and has spoken to them. We look forward to receiving the letter that was reported in the media yesterday, and I look forward to meeting with them.

[Committees of the House, October 19th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 109, I am pleased to table the government's response to the third report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security entitled, “Review of the Findings and Recommendations Arising from Iacobucci and O'Connor Inquiries”, in both official languages.

[Committees of the House, October 19th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 109, I am pleased to table the government's response to the report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts entitled, “Chapter 7—Economy and Efficiency of Services—Correctional Service Canada”, December 2008, Report of the Auditor General of Canada, in both official languages.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 109, I am pleased to table, in both official languages, the government's response to the 17th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts entitled: “Chapter 1, National Security: Intelligence and Information Sharing of the 2009 Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada”.

[Electronic Surveillance, October 9th, 2009]

Lastly, I am pleased to table, in both official languages, the 2008 annual report on the use of electronic surveillance, pursuant to section 195 of the Criminal Code.

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police, October 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I also have the honour to table, in both official languages, the 2008 annual report on the RCMP's Use of the Law Enforcement Justification Provisions. This report addresses the RCMP's use of specified provisions within the law enforcement justification regime, which is set out in sections 25.1 to 25.4 of the Criminal Code. It also documents the nature of the investigations in which these provisions were used.

[National DNA Data Bank of Canada, October 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to subsection 13.1(2) of the DNA Identification Act, I have the pleasure to submit, in both official languages, the 2008-09 annual report of the National DNA Data Bank of Canada.

[Foreign Affairs, October 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the officials in question deposited a sworn affidavit laying out in evidence in a court of law the questions that they asked, the answers that they received, and the reason they made the decisions they made in this matter. That is there for everyone to see, including the hon. member. I think it will answer any questions that he has.

[Foreign Affairs, October 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, let us be perfectly clear. The decisions in this matter were made by officials on the ground, Canada Border Services Agency officials.

These were not political decisions. These were decisions made by officials who were doing the job we asked them to do, to protect the integrity of our immigration and citizenship system by ensuring that people did not attempt to use documents fraudulently to enter this country.

We had in the first eight months of this year over 4,000 cases where officials successfully prevented people from doing exactly that. They were doing the job we asked them to do, and we should thank them for their work.

[Public Safety, October 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, the decisions on policing at the local level are in the hands of the provinces. The RCMP provides services through the provincial government through a contracting arrangement.

Of course, we have done our share to try and assist the provinces by providing funding for additional police officers. Significant funds were transferred to the provinces, including British Columbia, to do that. We have also committed to having 1,000 new RCMP officers added. We have already added over 1,500 and we are doing more.