Well, they shouldn't and we have a criminal justice system to punish them. We also have a deportation system to get out the bad ones. I don't think we should abandon that. I think we should hold people accountable.
The problem with this kind of a broad-brush bill is that it doesn't distinguish between...there are always degrees in these cases.
I've been practising in this area for 25 years and I've done many of these kinds of cases. Typically, what we see and what the bill doesn't provide for is the long-term permanent resident. We see people who come here as children, often as infants, from different countries with different cultures. Their families have difficulty adjusting and the parents often work really hard and aren't around much. There's sometimes conflict because the parents want them to maintain their cultural values at home, but these kids are getting westernized. Sometimes they have trouble adjusting in school and they start to act out and they hang out with the wrong kids. Sometimes they drop out of school, sometimes not.
What I often see is these offences are committed when they are 18 to 21 years of age when these kids think they are invincible, like all kids do. They think they can do anything. They commit an offence and they get into the system. If they go through the IAD system and they show enough positive factors, they get terms and conditions imposed on them.
I've seen so many cases where the kids have turned their lives around. I've also seen cases where people didn't turn their lives around. At the appeal, it became painfully obvious that they hadn't turned their lives around and they got on a plane back home.