Madam Speaker, I rise to participate in the debate on Bill C-45.
Since the Liberals and the separatists apparently share the same philosophy on criminal justice, it has fallen to the Reform members of the House to object in principle to the bill as well as to its details. This they have done with great vigour and distinction. I can add little to their arguments other than to support them with my vote.
What I would like to do is to analyse the bill as a product of the Liberal approach to criminal justice as a whole. What I would like to argue is that not only is the product flawed, but the whole approach on which it is based is flawed.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of the Liberal approach to criminal justice illustrated by the bill which Reformers and growing numbers of Canadians reject? I will refer to three characteristics.
The first characteristic is a perverse set of priorities. The Liberal approach to criminal justice puts the rights of persons accused or convicted of crimes ahead of the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens. We see this perverse set of priorities in the bill, but we even see it in the Liberal inspired charter of rights and freedoms.
Under the charter section on legal rights, there is one general section affirming the right of everyone to life, liberty and security of the person, but that is followed by 16 additional provisions-rights on arrest or detention, rights of a person charged with an offence and so forth-all pertaining to the rights of persons suspected, charged or convicted of crimes. There is one general clause affirming the rights of Canadians to public safety and protection of the person. There are no clauses at all on the rights of victims. There are 16 provisions pertaining to the rights of persons suspected, charged or convicted of crimes.
The Liberal set of priorities when it comes to public safety and criminal justice is perverse. It is perverse because the priorities of the Canadian people would put the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens ahead of the rights of persons accused and convicted of crimes.
In the bill before us we see exactly the same perverse set of priorities. What was the sole purpose of the original section 745 which the government insists on maintaining and amending rather than scrapping? It was to provide a faint hope of parole eligibility for convicted first degree murderers. It was yet another Liberal effort to affirm the rights of persons convicted of crimes, and the most heinous crimes, while the rights of victims of crimes and law-abiding citizens remain undefined or at risk.
The bill before us alters the procedure but still maintains the original purpose. The bill is the product of a perverse set of priorities and deserves to be rejected on that ground alone.
The second distinguishing characteristic of the Liberal approach to criminal justice, again illustrated by the bill, is an excessive reliance on bureaucratic compromise. If in doubt, especially on matters of principle, compromise. That is the Liberal approach. The bill is nothing but a compromise, a half measure that satisfies no one except those poor souls who believe that compromise is virtuous for its own sake.
There are some policy issues where half measures simply will not do. We cannot be half committed to national unity. We cannot be half committed to fiscal responsibility. We cannot be half committed to democracy. We cannot be half committed to public safety.
The public wants section 745 scrapped. According to the government's philosophy of criminal justice, the section should be retained as it is. But rather than do one or the other, scrap or retain, the government came up with a half baked compromise in the form of this tinkering amendment. The distinguishing characteristic of the government's approach as exemplified by the bill was bureaucratic compromise.
This tinkering amendment exhibits all the characteristics of bureaucratic tinkering. First degree murderers are now to be divided into different categories. Bureaucrats like to categorize. A screening measure is set up for all section 745 applications. Superior court judges, not just the chief justice of the superior court in a province, are drawn into the process, and the rules governing
juries hearing section 745 applications are amended. What can we call all this except bureaucratic fine tuning of a compromise position?
If there is anything worse than government by the lawyers, of the lawyers, for the lawyers, it is government of the bureaucracy, by the bureaucracy, for the bureaucracy, and this bill smacks of both.
My colleagues and I have no faith in bureaucratic tinkering, particularly with the Criminal Code and indeed in the whole area of criminal rehabilitation.
Thinking of the ineffectiveness of bureaucratic action in these areas, the inability of bureaucratic measures and institutions to protect people or to rehabilitate criminals, I am reminded of a poem by the Canadian poet George Pepki, inspired by the children's nursery rhyme "Humpty-Dumpty":
Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's horses and all the King's men Couldn't put Humpty together again.
And what is the moral to this little rhyme? A moral with meaning for men in our time? The moral is this, and its lesson is true: There are certain things that the state cannot do.
If all the King's horses and all the King's men Cannot put an egg together again, Is it not a false hope, an illusion, a sin, To ask civil servants to reconstruct men?
A third distinguishing characteristic of the Liberal approach to criminal justice is its growing disregard for the will of the people.
When Liberalism first emerged as a distinct political philosophy in 19th century Britain, its distinguishing characteristic was faith in the common sense of the common people. That was the essence of Gladstone's great reform bills which extended the franchise to ordinary people; the right to make important governing decisions to more and more ordinary people.
Gladstone treated the people as a great tribunal to which the greatest issue of state could be brought for discussion, not only discussion but decision.
But something happens to Liberals long in office. They begin to trust themselves and their friends and their advisers more than they trust the people, until finally in the last decade of the 20th century, mistrust of the common people has become the distinguishing characteristic of a degenerate Liberalism.
In this House a private member's bill introduced by the hon. member for York South-Weston, supported by members on both sides of the House, represented the wishes of the Canadian people with respect to section 745 of the Criminal Code. Their wish was to scrap the section, which was the effect of Bill C-234.
But what has the government done? It attempted to derail in committee the bill which represented the will of the people and has substituted for it this bureaucratic compromise we have before us representing the elitist views of the Minister of Justice and his colleagues. And to add insult to injury, the government now invokes time allocation to cut off debate and force the bill through a reluctant House.
Unless there is a display of courage by government backbenchers in the House, something we see far too infrequently, the government whip will coerce his colleagues to support this bureaucratic compromise and once again disregard the will of the Canadian people with respect to a Criminal Code provision.
In conclusion, Reform MPs reject both the bill and the whole Liberal approach to criminal justice on which it is based: this perverse set of priorities, bureaucratic compromises and blatant disregard for the will of the people. We urge other members to reject the bill and to bring back to the House and support Bill C-234, which more accurately reflects the will of Canadians on this issue.
We look forward to the day when a fresh start will be made on criminal justice in this country, one based on principle rather than bureaucratic compromise, one in which the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens take precedence over the rights of persons accused or convicted of crimes, one in which respect for the will of Canadians becomes the guiding light of the Canadian Criminal Code.
