I'd be pleased to do that, Mr. Moore, but I would be remiss if I didn't single out both you and Monsieur Petit for all your work as parliamentary secretaries to the justice minister. I think I've indicated to you before that I was very proud and pleased to be a parliamentary secretary to three justice ministers starting in the late eighties, and what a great experience that was for me, and a great training ground, quite frankly, to take on the role of Minister of Justice—though we're not contemplating any changes in the near future, just to be clear. But thank you again, you and Monsieur Petit, for all that you are doing and, quite frankly, for your support of this.
One of the common themes that we have had throughout our legislation is exactly that: we want to disrupt the criminal activity. I indicated to you that we made it tougher for people to get bail. We reversed the onus on people who have a record dealing with firearms and firearms offences and put the onus on them to get out on bail. I can tell you what police officers say to me: they say this sends out the right message. If the person who took a shot at you is back out on the street in a few hours, this actually sends out the wrong message to a neighbourhood. It sends out the wrong message to witnesses and to the victim. So what we have been attempting right across the board on these things is if you get some of these people off the street—that's what they tell me, that's what they're telling me in British Columbia—it disrupts the criminal activity they're a part of. That's exactly what we want to do. We want to break down these gangs. We want to disrupt their activities.
This bill is a perfect component of what we have been trying to do: worry about victims and law-abiding Canadians, and at the same time disrupt criminal activity and try to send a message to these individuals that this is not the way they should be living their lives. They should straighten themselves around. We are prepared to help them, but they have to get that message, that what they're doing is wrong and will not be tolerated.