I have a query for Professor Brodeur.
I'm searching for good reasons, really cogent reasons, to proceed with legislation of this type. To be honest, I'm having some difficulty. There is a lot of conflicting opinion.
If I speak to the police, they say we have to get “these guys” off the street—whoever “these guys” are. I'm pretty sure they're not referring to everybody in the criminal system but whoever they've brought in on charges. They want to get those guys off the streets so they won't have to deal with them next week and next year and the year after. That's a natural position they have.
If I speak to the public generally, they'd like to see more denunciation built into a sentence. They like that. They would like to see more deterrence built into a sentence. They like that.
I don't see a lot of deterrence, based on the opinion we're getting from our experts. I do understand the denunciation piece. If we told our public that we were going to put everybody in jail for 10 years minimum for anything in the Criminal Code, there would probably be some members of the public who would say yes, that will do it, that's denunciation; they will get the message. But I know it won't make much of a difference in our criminal law system. It might even hurt it.
Can you help me? Can you help me on the denunciation message? Is there any component of this legislation that you think would assist in both the political message of denunciation to the public and the denunciation message to the existing or potential criminal?