Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last night on CBC television, many Canadians saw video footage of an incident at the federal penitentiary for women in Kingston. The penitentiary holds the most violent and dangerous of women in the Canadian prison system. There have been problems of violence, fires and hostage-taking within the prison. However, none of this is an acceptable excuse for the use of the emergency response team in the prison on that April night last year.

Mr. Speaker, the disturbing pictures of naked women being surrounded and mishandled by male members of the emergency response team raises many questions. How could the warden, also a woman, have misled the public about the nature of this incident? Why did it take the release of this video before the truth came out? What types of systems do we have that consider it acceptable for men in full protective gear to need to subject women to the kind of humiliation and degradation that these women were obviously subjected to?

Mr. Speaker, this type of incident shows the worst face of our criminal justice system. While public inquiries are good, to get information to the public, this situation goes beyond this. There should be serious repercussions for both the warden and the men involved. It is also important, Mr. Speaker, that Canadians insist that we have proper policies in place in our prisons, policies which ensure that there is recognition of a difference in how emergency response teams are made up and used in women's prisons.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I have confidence that this government will never allow this type of incident to occur in our women's correctional centre in the north. But we must, as a Legislature, call for review of the policies which govern the administration of Canadian prisons to ensure this situation is never repeated in Canada. Thank you.

---Applause