National Defence committee  To that I would add removing the availability of custody with a deprivation of liberty as a penalty for summary trials. That would go a long way to ensuring a more fair approach to the process. I understand that if I were considering imposing a restriction of liberty that the option, the election, is often given to the member, but if that punishment were taken away as an option as a punishment for a summary trial, then perhaps it might withstand charter scrutiny.

National Defence committee  On behalf of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, Mr. Spratt and I are pleased to urge support for the amendments to this legislation in the bill. There are a number of amendments that promote an expeditious and fair response to service offences, all the while respecting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I'd like to draw the committee's attention to certain of those.