I've enjoyed the discussion here this afternoon very much.
I've perhaps already reached the conclusion before I got here today, but today just confirms it, that we all know that this bill doesn't get rid of conditional sentencing. It never intended to. Any pretension otherwise is misleading.
The ambit of the provisions goes way beyond any rational approach to designing a sentencing regime because it includes things such as unauthorized use of a computer and--I'll mention it again--cattle theft. The chair pointed out at some point that you could use a cow for a terrorist offence and then you'd really be into some serious territory.
I'm disturbed by that and the criteria. In other words, using the criterion of the ten-year maximum is anything but reasoned, almost to the point of being irrational, given the state that the Criminal Code is in, in its whole listing of maximum sentences.
So we have a very difficult situation here in which we're expected to be reasonable and rational in designing laws and enacting them. I can't find a way out of this, other than rejecting the bill, yet the public seems to want a bill. I mean, some people want to get rid of conditional sentencing, but the government isn't going to do it, and I don't want to do it in opposition, and professionals in the field all say don't do it.
I want to ask Mr. Roberts this. Is there any quick fix here? I know you made some suggestions. Is there any quick fix that you could see here that would allow us to reach out and grab a hold of something that's reasoned, so that in the end the judges will understand it and that would allow the public to see a shift that meets the political need and still allow aboriginal communities to get on with the good work they've been doing in sentencing and accomplish some of the other objectives?