Thank you very much, Minister and officials, for coming here today, and specifically on this bill, which I can tell you is very important to my constituents.
It is so much so that on a recent call-in show on one of the radio stations, they had a gentleman there...I must admit I can't remember his name, but he does have some great knowledge in this area. I believe he was a lawyer, specifically a lawyer for victims and victims of crime. He related, of course, to the audience that not only is it in some cases two for one, but there are some cases where it was actually three for one, which is quite disturbing to most people.
Then of course we did some research, and we looked into Bill C-25 and what the opinion is of many of your counterparts and our counterparts provincially and people who were interested. I'm just going to read you a couple of quotes and then a couple of other items and then ask for your comment.
The first one is from Dr. Matt Logan, who is an RCMP expert on sex offences. He told this committee on April 30:
I took two years out of my career and went to jail as a psychologist for CSC, and I'll tell you that the two-for-one is a scam. The people who are pulling the two-for-ones are clogging the court system and just backing it up even further. So I was extremely gratified to see the two-for-one disappear.
The next is from the Honourable Cecil Clarke, the Minister of Justice for Nova Scotia:
This change would stop criminals attempting to manipulate the justice system by extending their time in pre-trial custody. Ultimately, this change will ensure that an individual serves the amount of time in a correctional institution appropriate to the crime that has been committed.
So, Minister, I know you know that the majority of Canadians are 100% behind this piece of legislation. I wonder if you might comment on some of your conversations with other justice ministers across this country and specifically with the people who really count: the people who brought us here, who elected us to come here, and specifically the victims of crime.