I have four things, Mr. Chair.
First of all, the Minister of Public Safety still has the ability under this legislation to release anyone under detention. If a ship were to arrive and the minister had to make a determination, the legislation allows for him or her to decide whether or not detention is the right or proper thing for the child. So let's keep that in mind. It is always at the forefront of the decision-making process.
Second, I would point out that we are being consistent—this is in keeping with the young offender legislation, which uses the age of 16 as its cut-off point.
Third, I hate to admit this—well, I'd love to admit this, but I don't know if it's good that I've been around here this long. A number of years ago we dealt with age of consent. Mr. Chair, I know you were here at that time, and there was a lot of discussion about what should happen with the raising of the age of consent. We went from 14 years to 16 years, and I recall the vehement opposition from both the Liberal Party and the NDP. They expressed shock that we would dare to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, because, as they considered it, Canadians of 14 were more than capable of making decisions for themselves. I wish we could have had some of the members who sit on the other side of the table here when we were trying to pass that justice legislation in a minority government. You would have helped us a great deal in moving the age of consent from 14 to 16.