I'll just make a couple of more comments, adding to what Kim has said.
As we understand it, one of the key bases on which this legislation is being put forward is to act as a deterrent. I think it's very important to keep in mind that sentencing severity, that is, having a harsher sentence—having a four-year sentence rather than a two-year one or six years rather than four years—has been shown not to deter crime, or, rather, the null hypothesis is being accepted by social scientists. It's very hard as academics, or people very steeped in research, to prove a negative, but social scientists or academics are very much coming to a view that accepts the null hypothesis with respect to deterrence due to sentencing severity. The idea that people are deterred by having harsher sentences just simply isn't borne out by the evidence. So if the government wishes to proceed in this way, I think it's very important to be clear that it's not going to produce that particular result, or at least there simply isn't the evidence to support that argument, in our view.
If members of the committee are interested, I do have an article that I could make available to anyone. I don't know if you have it before you, or if you've had Professor Tony Doob appear before you, but it's an article he's written with Cheryl Webster, called “Sentence Severity and Crime: Accepting the Null Hypothesis”. It is a meta-study of numerous studies examining whether or not deterrence can be proven.
So this is something we're quite concerned about. If it is being done in the name of deterrence, we ought to be asking some very serious questions about that. There's a burden of proof there that I think hasn't been displayed as to whether this will actually deter people.
Because of that, I think we're seeing a moving away from this approach by other jurisdictions that have taken this approach in a very concerted effort. A number of American states, as well as jurisdictions in Australia, are starting to move away from imposing mandatory minimum sentences, precisely because they come at great human and fiscal cost, as well as not delivering on the promise of deterrence.
So this is something that we think is important to keep in mind when considering this bill.
Thank you for your time.