On the submission of written materials, I have, as I'm sure may of you do, the dreadful habit of walking into a room with written materials and then departing from them from time to time. I will try to provide some written materials on the issue you spoke to me about.
On the matter of mandatory minimums being floors but not ceilings, I gave the committee an example—one I'm not going to repeat here—of a very serious circumstance involving 23 illegal handguns that could kill a lot of people. The Crown sought ten years on that matter. The sentence that was provided was two years. Under the current bill, depending on which charge is applied, assuming that all the circumstances apply, the minimum moves up from two years to three years. But we would submit, if we were before the court, that three years would not be sufficient. Rather, a three-year mandatory minimum is an expression by Parliament that in fact this is a significant sentence that requires at least three years, and that in serious circumstances such as these, the mandatory minimum and the increase of the mandatory minimum ought to have an inflationary effect upon the sentence. That is pursuant to the Supreme Court of Canada decision by Justice Arbour in Morrisey.