Again, thank you for the question.
There is a limited expansion of the retroactive scheme, as you mentioned, to include persons convicted of a single murder and also of a single sexual offence committed at different times. Additions to the list of primary offences include robbery, break and enter of a dwelling. We're trying to expand the regime that's in place.
There was probably a consensus that, as originally proposed and introduced, it was fairly narrow grounds upon which you would be able to obtain a DNA sample for a smaller range of offences. Mr. Yost just pointed out one of the other difficulties, that if you didn't get the DNA sample right there, you were out of luck.
I think there's a recognition, and I think this bill encapsulates that, as did indeed the bill that died on the order paper, quite frankly. There's a need to get more samples and expand them to a wider range of crimes, because this is an important crime-fighting tool. This is not something from Star Wars or something in the future; this works now for police officers and it's something they have to have. What we are doing basically in expanding the scope of this bill is responding to the advances in technology and to the recognized value of this particular process. Basically we're trying to keep up to date.
That is one of the challenges you have as a member of this committee, and quite frankly, that we have, that I have as a minister of Justice, to stay up to date on the technology. It changes all the time, and this is why I would expect this committee will always be a busy committee. It always has been a busy committee.
I will go back to my comments to Mr. Comartin. This won't be the last word on this. I'm quite sure that science, technology, and experience.... If we conduct a review, I would expect to get good input on that because that's what we're looking for. Anytime you move into a new area of science, and this is relatively new, and it's changing, we have to stay ahead of the curve, and this is what Canadians count on us to do.