This is on both what we heard from Mr. Daubney but specifically from Mr. Norlock.
We are supposed to be here from a dispassionate point of view. But I have to say that if you want to take that into account, think about what's going to happen as the judges look at this legislation, see their discretion curtailed, and still see all the problems of people being in pretrial custody in situations that are inhumane. Think about the number of cases we're going to have in which people are not going to be sentenced to any time at all once the conviction is entered and the sentence is given--because the court is, and the judges are, in fact, I believe, going to look at this. They understand both the provincial law and the federal law about remission and eligibility for parole. They understand the comparative between somebody who has been remanded into custody and somebody who has been out on bail. And they're going to take that into account. They're going to, in effect, work their way around this legislation. But then what is going to happen is that I'm going to have constituents, and Mr. Norlock is going to have constituents, and all of you are going to have constituents, who are going to say, “How could this possibly happen? How could this person, committing that offence, not get any jail time at all?”
That's how they're going to see it. That's going to be the consequence. I think that's the way our judges will work it out. Both provincial court judges and superior court judges will work it out that way. It does not leave us, as policy-makers, as lawmakers, or as representatives of our people, in any better position to answer the question of how that could have happened.