I can answer that, Mr. Chair.
There are really two parts to that. My primary concern would be if there has been a child who has been born or is to be born of that relationship. So it's a relationship that's in existence and the female in the couple is pregnant or has had a child. It's worrisome that we would criminalize that, even if the age is greater than five years. We're looking at it as a stable or semi-stable relationship and then criminalizing it. That one gives me great, great concern.
To a lesser degree, and I'll concede that, if they have been living together for a year or longer and we have a stable relationship, should we be criminalizing that? We're recognizing--I'm sure I'm going to hear this from Mr. Moore--that as the relationship starts it is a criminal offence. It's the reality of what we're going to be faced with. There are going to be cases, which are going to come before criminal courts, where we have a relationship of a year or longer, there is no child, and we're going to say that's a criminal act. We're still going to see those cases. I've practised enough family law and criminal law to tell you that we can draft and pass whatever laws we want, but in the extreme cases we are not going to be able to avoid this.
I guess this is the other point that Mr. Moore will make, so let me anticipate it. Will that in effect undermine the whole legislation? I don't think so. The message is going out very clearly from this bill, from this House, that we are raising the age of consent in this country. So it will be the exceptional cases, the 200 to 300 a year, that we're dealing with.