The preamble at the very beginning of the bill is not a clause as such. Clause 1 of the bill amends section 84 of the Criminal Code, not section 85, and has many purposes.
First of all, clause 1 which proposes to amend subsection 84(5) list those offences for which the penalties would be increased. Tougher penalties are already imposed in the case of certain offences. For example, section 85 already provides for two types of penalties: one year for the commission of a first offence, and three years for a repeat offence.
Bill C-10 proposes much tougher penalties for a number of offences. There would be three types of penalties: one year, two years for a second offence, and five years for a repeat offence. Two different penalties are proposed for other offences: three years for a first offence, and five years for a repeat offence.
The clause starts off by listing all of the offences included in Part III of the Criminal Code for which tougher penalties are imposed in the case of repeat offenders. We need to be clear on the definition of “repeat offender“. According to the proposed paragraphs 84(5)(a),(b) and(c), if the accused was convicted in the past of committing an offence involving either the use of a firearm, or where a firearm was present but not used, that offence is deemed to be an earlier offence. The provision goes on to state that the offence will not be taken into account if more than 10 years have elapsed, not taking into account any time in custody.
The proposed subsection 84(6) expressly states that if the accused has a number of outstanding charges that have not yet been resolved by the courts, as soon as a charge has been entered, it is deemed to be a previous conviction.
Perhaps I could briefly explain that provision in English.
Subsection (6) is an explicit interpretation that if an individual has a number of outstanding charges that have not yet been resolved before the courts, the conviction, as soon as it's entered, is taken into account, regardless of the sequence in the commission of the offences themselves. In the clause-by-clause book, it's described as “ousting the Coke rule”.
There is a common-law interpretation that generally applies when a person has multiple outstanding charges and faces a higher penalty due to repeat offending. The Supreme Court has indicated that it is possible to exclude that general common-law interpretation if it's done so explicitly in the statute. So that's what subsection (6) does at clause 1 and elsewhere in the bill when an escalating scheme is proposed.