Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There's some agreement that mandatory minimums are useful in this justice context. The effect of the 1995 introduction of mandatory minimums probably hasn't been objectively empirically studied enough to see what good they have done in deterrence. One would think that has to be done as we go forward.
The second thing I'm happy to hear you say—and I want to get the tape of it—is that you considered Liberals, at least during the campaign, to be tougher on crime than the Conservatives, so I appreciate that comment.
I'm going to ask all of my questions at once, because you're passionate about your beliefs here—perhaps often wrong, but never in doubt. I don't want to give you short change on the answer time, so I'll just posit the questions one by one.
When we received our briefing from the Justice people, there was a Mr. Daubney who prepared a report for Justice, and unless things have changed drastically—and I was certainly new at the job—I didn't think the Department of Justice was overwhelmingly recommending further mandatory minimums. I'd ask you to comment on whether there has been a born-again retribution and denunciation religion that I'm unaware of within the justice department.
On the studies themselves, you mentioned that you have the names of studies. We're looking forward to getting those once the copyright translation issues are dealt with.