Thank you, Chair, and my thanks to our witnesses for their patience and their interventions.
I want to start with you, Mr. Osborne. You had some concerns about the changes in the legislation with regard to maximum sentences. The changes would move us from five to fourteen years. Can you confirm what this might do to judicial discretion, and how that relates to absolute or conditional discharges?
You mentioned this as having an effect on the application of law. I think it's important. On the surface, one might think it's great—it goes from five to fourteen. Why not?
Tell us how this would affect judicial discretion and conditional sentences. We have seen this in other applications of other laws that have been changed—the possibility of unintended consequences. You might look at the law and say, “Oh, this is pretty heavy. We might not apply it to the extent that we would have before if we'd had more leeway.” So please touch on that.