If I could just begin, we've had the Criminal Code for a long time. Obviously, the Criminal Code needs amendments from time to time when things are found to be problematic in it.
The question that this legislation isn't answering is that we've had this same Criminal Code, and we've had dangerous offender provisions for a long time, and we're not disputing that we have them. Why is it then that now we need them? What is the code not doing? Why has society changed such that we arguably have more gun crime? That's the question that has to be answered. It's not the Criminal Code's fault or the laxity of the Criminal Code, because those sections of the Criminal Code have always been there.
Deterrence is another debate for another time. If deterrence worked so well, we wouldn't have such a murder rate in the United States when they have the death penalty in Texas. I think we have to be careful about judging that.
Your other comment was about the dangerous offender situation in terms of availability of defence. I think that's going to be a problem here. We're not saying that people who are habitual criminals, who are dangerous, shouldn't be locked up, perhaps indefinitely. That's not what we're saying, because we're citizens of the community as well. We're saying that the burden should be on the state. The state has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, in most cases. We do have some reverse onus, but if we're going to seek to lock someone up indefinitely, as a society, then that burden should be on the society to do that. It can be done, and it has been done, and we do have dangerous offenders. It shouldn't just be based on some mathematical example that says this is your third conviction for more than two years, so you're now designated dangerous unless you can show otherwise.
We won't dispute a lot of things--