Thank you, Mr. Murphy, for that question.
I think this bill would make good law. Certainly with the mandate we all have here in Parliament—except the Bloc, I will say, were not elected on the same mandate that the rest of us were—The Liberal platform said that a Liberal government will reintroduce legislation to crack down on violent crimes and gang violence and to double the mandatory minimum sentences for serious gun-related crimes. In fact our bill, by the measure of the Liberal platform, doesn't even go far enough. With that said, we've introduced a bill that increases mandatory minimum sentences for violent gun crimes. It also targets some other crimes committed by gangs, committed with a restricted or prohibited weapon.
To answer your question, yes, there's an openness to look at amendments to the bill. At the end of the day, I would rather have a bill that goes a step in the right direction—maybe not as far as I would like to see, but this government would like to have a bill in place that protects Canadians. We are open to feedback from opposition parties. I'm looking at the amendments that my colleague Mr. Comartin has put forward. We are open to hearing your suggestions too. We've put the bill forward; we've heard from witnesses. The basic premise I operated under was that based on the commitments that were made, the Liberals, NDP, and ourselves, the direction of the bill was a step in the direction of keeping our campaign and platform commitments. It might not be exactly how you would like to do it, but the framework is in place. What I'm asking, genuinely, is where would you like to see a change, and can we, as a committee, accommodate that? In doing our work with this bill, can we come up with something that will pass muster for a majority of the committee?