I will conclude.
I just want us to understand one another clearly on one point. I respect the government's reasoning. It is your prerogative to vote for or against this, and the same goes for us. Here, we will restrict ourselves to the law as it now stands and to the way in which the Supreme Court has interpreted conditional sentencing. My question is for Ms. Kane.
Would you agree with me that in the Supreme Court decision in Proulx in 2000, it was clearly pointed out to us as lawmakers that a conditional sentence was indeed a prison sentence?
I will not go into other subtleties of the decision. All too often, during our committee's work, members have acted as if conditional sentencing was not imprisonment. I agree that the system may have some deficiencies, but as we complete our work I would not like anyone to be left with the impression that a conditional sentence is not a sentence of imprisonment. Have I understood the Proulx decision correctly?