Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my honourable colleague for Yellowknife Frame Lake, Mr. Dent, on what I expect to be the imminent passage of Bill 32.
--- Applause
As you know from your own experience as a Member, Mr. Speaker, it's not always easy to bring forward a private Member's bill and I applaud Mr. Dent's effort and conviction in doing so.
At the same time, though, Mr. Speaker, I remain troubled as I see this bill go on to third reading.
Mr. Speaker, I will always support any endeavour which serves to preserve and enhance the integrity of this House. In retrospect, I believe that Bill 32 will do that. But I remain very concerned about a loophole that exists with regard to Members who may receive a conditional discharge, and I am certain that the legal profession will make every effort to capitalize on it.
I am also concerned, as I stated during standing committee hearings and again during debate in this House, that Mr. Dent's initiative does not go far enough. I believe that there is a far broader range of offences, including bootlegging, impaired driving, illegal possession of drugs, fraud and others that should have been included. I believe that any Member found guilty of these should not be allowed to sit in this House.
I have already stated my concerns over the potential interpretation of threatened violence or attempted assault, and I wonder what our constituents must think when we become so buried in legal definitions and case law that we're not even sure whether our laws reflect what we mean.
But, Mr. Speaker, what troubles me most about seeing Bill 32 passed through this Legislature is that just one more signal of a disturbing trend in Canada; a trend that is pushing all difficult decisions into the courts to decide.
Mr. Speaker, while I applaud Mr. Dent's efforts, this bill runs contrary to the basic belief that I have in our democratic system. It is my belief that it should be up to the people who decide when an elected representative is to be removed, not an outcome of a sentencing hearing in a court. Decisions to expel a Member should occur through an election or when other elected Members choose to exercise the rules of the House.
I am troubled by the increasing Canadian trend of pushing almost every decision into the courts through Charter challenges, constitutional interpretations and so forth. We will take a 10-minute break, please. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to continue.