Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If I can go back to amendment NDP-1 to this extent, it was an amendment to proposed subsection 150.1(2.2), which would have been dealing, in effect, with the transition paragraph in the existing draft bill. I've moved the amendment that I was proposing for proposed subsection 150.1(2.2) into proposed subsection 150.1(2.1), thereby creating what in effect are new defences to the charge in sections 151, 152, 173, and 271.
The end result of this amendment would be to create what in effect would be two new defences in addition to the five-year near-age defence, if the couple was married or living...that's in the new paragraph 150.1(2.1)(b), or in (c), the relationship was a common-law relationship or a child had been conceived of the relationship, always with the provision that the relationship cannot be one that's abusive or exploitive, which is what paragraph (d) deals with. So that's a continuation of what's in the existing bill.
If I can add to this, the effect is that if we were to pass this amendment, I would then be moving to delete proposed subsection 150.1(2.2), because it would be redundant. At that point, it would no longer be necessary. The provision that's in the existing bill would no longer be necessary. I think that would be an inevitable result if we passed this amendment to proposed subsection 150.1(2.1).
If I can conclude with this, what I'm addressing here is the concern that I raised on Tuesday and the debate we entered into around the roughly 3,000 couples a year who are married or living in a common-law relationship. We don't know—we couldn't get that information—how many of those relationships may be of less than a five-year age differential. What I'm in effect attempting to do here is to protect those relationships from criminal sanction. As much as we did in the committee's work, which was fairly extensive on this point, we simply could ascertain how many of those in those marriage or common-law relationships were in a greater distance of age than five years. That's what it's designed to do, to protect us from criminalizing those relationships.
I think those are all my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.