I certainly understand the frustration that the Canadian public feels. I think we all have a responsibility to try to ensure that the criminal justice system reflects the kinds of values that the Canadian public adheres to, but I would endorse the observations that were made by the council with respect to sentencing decisions.
I've seen the studies in which you ask general questions to people on what they think about sentencing and they'll tell you it stinks. But if you give them the specific facts of situations and ask them for a range of appropriate sentences, they will typically pick a sentence very close to that which the judge gives.
I would urge this government to do what it can to try to make sure the criminal justice system is responsive to the needs of the people, but to be targeted in how it does it. To just get rid of conditional sentences for all offences listed that have maximum sentences over ten years, in my most respectful submission, is a very blunt way of just trying to show that you're going to get tough on crime. If you're going to accomplish something specific by doing that, if you're going to deter crime, if you're going to systematically produce good sentencing, then I'd be standing here saying, bravo, let's do it.
The problem is it's too generalized. You can't take discretion out of sentencing. If you're going to go that far, why don't we just list a specific sentence for every crime in the Criminal Code, a period of incarceration that has to be given for every single crime, and we'll just get rid of sentencing as a process and have an automatic outcome.
You've got to look at the context and you've got to look at the circumstance. Short of that, you're always going to have judicial discretion, and if you don't have it, you don't have judgment.