Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just so Mr. Moore is clear, I understand that these amendments don't have anything to do with the mandatory minimum part. I think Mr. Murphy's argument is a good argument. It's just that it's not really relevant to the amendments that are before the committee right now.
I do want to challenge Mr. Moore on his statement with regard to the two years. Of course, he's right about that, that even these lesser offences—as I see them—can call for two years or more in a number of cases. Obviously he didn't understand the point I was making, and that may be my fault rather than his, Mr. Chair.
Let me take as an example—because this is where the flaw is in the legislation—breaking and entering again. I say this from experience and from looking at a large number of cases. You will get a series of convictions for breaking and entering. I know how demeaning that is—my house has been broken into I think three times in the last 20 years, and I know the consequences. One time my daughter was present, and that was quite scary, Mr. Chair.
But the reality is that this was a petty criminal, and if that person—I don't think he has ever been caught—had been caught, we probably would have found that he had a series of B and Es and probably had been convicted. On the first occasion he would have been given either probation or a short provincial jail term, but escalating. The reality still is that this is a petty criminal, and you can see quite easily—I know Mr. Hoover and I disagree over this—hundreds of cases in which there would be that exact situation and in which the judge would finally say,“I give up. You're not listening. I'm sending you away for two years plus, into federal prison.” We could have a series of those, and then the dangerous offender application would come for a person who was clearly, by any objective standards, not a dangerous offender. You can repeat that same argument for a number of the other sections. That's why I moved them.