Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Monsieur Ménard, for your questions.
We believe these will strengthen the provisions in the Criminal Code that allow a judge to make a decision that is in the best interest of protecting the public. I indicated in my opening remarks that the types of statistics--and we've provided some statistics to committee members previously on this--to prove or disprove what you're asking us to do aren't available. I suppose if there were statistics on how to conclusively prove what human behaviour will do or not do is always a challenge.
On the other hand, Monsieur Ménard, we have to maintain that confidence in the criminal justice system, and a reverse onus, we know, is already part of the provisions with respect to bail right now. Extending this to other firearms offences, and serious firearms offences, I think is perfectly consistent with that. It's certainly consistent with the public's concern about the proliferation of firearms in our society. A week doesn't go by that people aren't either writing to me or talking to me about problems with firearms-related crime in this country. So giving judges more of an ability to protect the public seems to be a good idea and should stand on its own.