Minister, based on what we know about organized crime, I would tell you that nuances need to be made. When I was elected, in the early 1990s, no one talked about street gangs but rather about the Hells Angels. Measures were taken in that regard. I am told that, with regard to street gangs, one of the problems for police is that the shadowing system is different. Gangs are less predictable and there is less hierarchy. The Hells Angels have a structure, a whole criminal organization, but that is not true for street gangs. As legislators, we need to make these nuances, in looking at criminal organizations.
Clearly, for individuals subject to intimidation and fear in their communities, it is important for those responsible to be arrested and locked up for 25 years. We are in agreement there. As parliamentarians, I think that we need to make the distinction nonetheless, and this one is quite important. Let me give you an example. A police officer told me that shadowing street gangs related to the Haitian community was extremely difficult. In fact, the officers could not understand Creole, so even if they were to go before a justice of the peace and get a wiretap warrant—and you know that these warrants can be extended up to a year under the second anti-gang law—the information gathered is not easily usable. Such distinctions are what lead us as legislators to modulate or vary our response. As Minister of Justice, you feel that there is no distinction between what has been happening in British Columbia for the past few months and what happened in Quebec in the mid 1990s. Of course, you are concerned with the effectiveness of the measures that you will put forward.