Mr. Speaker, I have known the hon. member in public life, going back at least a couple of decades.

I thank him for that suggestion. That is exactly what we have to do. We have to move forward on these. There was quite a bit of criticism of the Department of Justice but in many ways the department has considerable insight into these.

I remember when I was on justice committee, listening to Don Piragoff, an outstanding individual in the Department of Justice. He pointed out that many times people who were caught up in the criminal justice system had administrative offences that otherwise were not criminal offences but they piled up on them.

For instance, if a person gets arrested and he or she is told not to be on the street after 9 o'clock, not to be in a bar, not to have anything to drink, those in and of themselves are not crimes, yet many times people who might have addiction problems and have been arrested go out. If they are drinking or if they are on the streets, it then piles up. It becomes far more complicated to deal with an individual who faces all kinds of charges. I really appreciate my colleague pointing that out.

We have to look at what really happens in our country with respect to indigenous peoples. I spoke of indigenous police forces in the province of Ontario. We have to look at ways to help them. We can make changes so they are in a better position.

During all of the years I was in government, I was a big supporter of the aboriginal court worker program. It made sense to help people to ensure they understood the system. People are having problems understanding what goes on in the system or what the system is all about, and this is part of the dialogue we are having here. We need to have this dialogue.

I hope the government will bring forward constructive amendments or legislation. I hope it has some ideas on this because we will look at them very carefully.

Rob Nicholson

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