Mr. Moore, if I might respond to your initial premise, I once appeared in front of a wise judge in Regina. He took the position that judges are representatives of the community; they in fact reflect the community feeling about a particular matter. He saw his role as passing the sentence of the community. He would take into account the offender, the victim, and the community circumstances.
I've had cases of impaired driving causing death where there were two best friends and one was driving and the other was killed. I've had one case where the family didn't want anything to do with that individual. I've had another case where the family wanted to forgive that individual and did not want to see him go to jail. I ask you, for every family that wants a harsher punishment in the sense of a conditional sentence, are we then to say to the families who think the person should be forgiven that there should be no penalty and that person should walk out of court? In my respectful submission, that's why we have a judge to balance all these considerations.