38^th Parliament, 1^st Session

Edited Hansard • Number 019

Monday, November 1, 2004

Criminal Code

    (Bill C-13. On the Order: Government Orders:)

    Hon. Bill Graham (for the Minister of Justice) moved:

[Hansard Page 1034 – 1035]

 Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC): Madam Speaker, I first spoke in favour of a real DNA data bank, one just like the police lobbied for to the Liberals back in October 1997. I argued then that victims' rights should come before a criminal's rights and nothing the Liberals did then or have done since then has changed my mind.

    During the 1997 election the Canadian Police Association slogan in support of a real DNA data bank was “Register criminals before guns”. The Canadian Police Association had made a backroom deal with the Liberals promising their support for a universal gun registry in return for a real DNA data bank. That is what they wanted. What did the police get? They were shafted. They had a useless billion dollar gun registry in 1998 and had to wait another two years before the Liberals' watered-down version of the DNA data bank opened in 2000.

    This was 11 years after the RCMP had the capability of analyzing DNA in its forensic laboratories. The Canadian Police Association called the government's failure to act quickly on this highly effective crime tool as “an abdication of responsibility to public safety”.

    In 1997 the Canadian Police Association pleaded with the Liberal government to give them the same rights to collect DNA samples just like they do fingerprints from accused criminals. The Liberals ignored their pleas in 1997 and they are still ignoring them today.

    On October 19, 2004 the following report was in a Toronto newspaper:

    Compare England's 1,700 hits a week with Canada's 2,000 hits in four years. The difference is unbelievable. Even with feeble Liberal DNA legislation and just $3 million or $4 million a year being spent on the DNA data bank, it is still putting real criminals in jail.

    On July 23, 2004 the RCMP issued a news release announcing:

    This sounds great but not when we compare it to England's phenomenal success rate of 1,700 hits per week. Then MPs have to question the government about the operational effectiveness of our DNA testing facilities.

    Last week I questioned the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in committee and in the House. I asked her why she was pumping $120 million into a completely ineffective firearms program this year while more than 1,700 DNA cases were backlogged in the RCMP forensic labs. I asked her how many criminals are walking around free because of the lack of adequate funding for the RCMP labs. She ducked the question both times and her parliamentary secretary ducked it once again during the late show.

    Here is what my sources in the RCMP are telling me. In 2000 the DNA case backlog in the RCMP forensic laboratory was 330 cases. In October 2003 the backlog had risen to twice that, 683 cases. This October, one year later, it had reached an all-time high of 1,733 cases. The backlog doubled in this last year. The RCMP's evidence recovery and biology services business plan called for an increased investment to deal with the DNA backlog situation, but its request was denied. Why?

(1805)  

    The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is not improving public safety. She is letting criminal suspects roam free because she will not give the RCMP labs enough money to analyze DNA samples. Just how many violent criminals are roaming free because the minister is more interested in the political priorities of the Liberal gun registry than the police priority of the DNA data bank?

    Using internal statistics my RCMP sources have calculated that there are at least 340 repeat offenders among those 1,700 cases in the DNA backlog. Just think about that statistic. How many people are roaming the streets, recommitting, and putting our citizens at risk because the government has the wrong priorities? This is a travesty.

    I ask members of the House not to think about the 340 repeat offenders roaming free in Canada. I ask them to think about their 340 victims and their pain and suffering. I ask them to think about the victims that these repeat offenders will attack tomorrow, next week, next month and next year, and all the while, investigating police officers are waiting for the 1,700 case backlog to be cleared.

    I cannot understand why the Liberals insist on wasting $120 million this year on a completely useless firearms program rather than clearing up this DNA backlog and putting hundreds of violent criminals in jail, nor can I understand why the Liberal government is more concerned about the rights of accused violent criminals than they are about the rights of the victims of these accused criminals.

    On August 10 Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino wrote a letter to the Globe and Mail and stated:

    In 1988 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the forcible taking of a criminal suspect's fingerprints, or even a strip search, did not violate a person's charter rights. Why then is the government more concerned about taking saliva sample from a prisoner's mouth than it is about the victims of those violent criminals? It makes no more sense to me than it does to Chief Fantino.