The Minister couldn't adequately answer in 3 years let alone 3 minutes -- another Hansard "Best Seller"

The Minister couldn't adequately answer in 3 years let alone 3 minutes since security has been more about smoke and mirrors and perception than about providing adequate security. As they bury the officers this week, notice the same tired old cliches will be repeated -- but no action. They keep telling us we're safe but they don't do the things necessary to make us safe.

Hansard

Mr. Peter MacKay: --to ask you questions, of course.

I have to take issue with this suggestion that somehow closing detachments, nine in total in the province of Quebec, is consistent with increasing efforts towards drug enforcement.

In particular, I find it passing strange in terms of Joliette and Coaticook, which, as I understand it, were actually being very effective and had tremendous success in those rural areas, by making arrests, by in fact having busted up several major cannabis organizations within rural parts of the province. So I find it perverse that anyone would suggest that this reorganization was actually going to be for the greater benefit of rural Canada.

That said, I have some more questions with respect to prison guards. In particular, there was an issue that I found very disturbing in your home province, Madam Minister. That is, there was information leaked or obtained somehow by prisoners, private information about guards and their home addresses. It occurred at Kingston Penitentiary, Joyceville, and in Edmonton, as I understand it. What has been done to address this problem, and were there other security leaks?

[Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan is from Alberta. NJC]

I would also like to know about security intelligence reports. I've heard from several sources working within Correctional Service Canada that these reports, which many times have to do with serious incidents, go nowhere. They go into the ether after they've actually been tabled. There's no response; there's no action taken.

In once instance, there was a reference made to a senior official, if not a warden, saying that the problem was so big, we had to put a blanket over it and cover it up. That type of response does very little to instill public confidence.

The final question I have deals specifically with a commitment you made the last time you were here, which was that you would provide an explanation as to the huge backlog that exists right now with DNA cases in the forensic laboratories throughout the country. You told us that this issue, which is increasing, as I understand it, in terms of its seriousness.... There are over 1,700 cases with respect to the DNA backlog. The RCMP's reaction to this is to extend the deadline in terms of their ability to process this information, which causes a further backlog in the courts. I know, because I've had to wait on those types of forensic reports, and it causes a real delay.

Madam Minister, I know you can't respond to all of that in three minutes, but closing detachments, pulling back on front-line police officers, not giving prison guards protective equipment and the types of protective mechanisms they need, and not assisting victims doesn't seem consistent with the supplementary estimates and main estimates when you have this enormous white elephant of a gun registry that has proven to be ineffective, that has gone over 10,000 times its budget, that is not connected to public safety. If this is really a priority....

You say there are no simple answers. There are some simple answers here: can that registry and put the money where it's needed first and it will have a real impact on law enforcement and protecting the public in this country.