Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister, and Mr. Hoover.
We are getting into the world of reported designations and the nomenclature of applications. If information on the number of applicants is available, it wasn't canvassed in the material we had, and we would certainly appreciate getting whatever information you can give us with respect to the numbers of applications over various years and by various provinces.
I can say from talking to many prosecutors in the province that in New Brunswick the current average is, I think, one to two per year. It doesn't sound as if it's a big issue, but of course it is, because prosecutors respect the process and use it judiciously, if I can use that word, and are looking for some improvements, of course. So the resource issue is a big issue.
Let me start by saying that I'm totally in support of tweaking the dangerous offenders system, which has worked pretty well but has some tweaking to be done to it. I think that in contradistinction to many of the other justice bills presented thus far, this is really targeting.... The dangerous offender community is a community that should be locked away. These are recidivists; these are people over, on average, 40 years of age who in some cases—a quarter of them—have committed 15 or more offences. They're dangerous and they're...I won't say bad people—it's too moralistic—but they're dangerous to society.
So we want to support you in making this bill better, Mr. Minister, but I think—and you can nod and make a face if you wish, but it's very sincere—you've glossed over the charter aspects. Wanting this to work means that you, I think, should have canvassed section 7 as it relates to liberty and the Supreme Court of Canada cases in respect to the necessity to show, on sentencing in aggravating circumstances, that those aggravating circumstances are proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
In that DOs are going to lose their liberty, which is the fundamental aspect of section 7 of the charter, are you not concerned that this standard must apply to aggravating circumstances, which in this case are the triggers, if you will, of your bill?