Just in criminal law terms here, Mr. Chairman, I only had a short time to look at the amendment but, as I understand the policy of the amendment, it fits within the scope of the bill and certainly fits within the scope of the convention, not that I'm an expert on the convention, but being amended into a criminal law bill causes some concerns. It may weaken the existing offence of possession that's in the bill. This is one concern. We are criminalizing the possession of all cluster munitions in Canada with the bill and this speaks separately of stockpiles. The criminal law community feels we're not sure what a stockpile is, how many cluster munitions it would take before you could convict somebody of having a stockpile as opposed to a collection or something like that. We didn't use that word in the primary offences for that reason. We didn't want to leave it open to a Canadian court to interpret.
There are also a couple of certainty concerns. When we enact criminal offences they have to meet charter and other standards of certainty. This one incorporates part of the convention that could be amended. It's scheduled, but putting it in the schedule does not make it part of the legislation. It's only there as an interpretive aid, and the date it would take effect is uncertain. Normally there would be a proclamation clause that the offence would be coming into force on a day fixed by order of the Governor in Council, and it would be gazetted. This would be triggered by the coming into force of the convention, and Canadian law, if I could say, doesn't know what that date is.