Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the minister and his officials for joining us today.
I want to comment particularly on the eloquence of the minister in speaking about the difficulties the faint hope clause has caused for victims of crime. I can tell by his eloquence that the concerns and interests of victims are very close to his heart and are a major consideration in this bill.
I'd like to shift a bit just from that to perhaps something that may not be as major but is equally important. It stems from the statistics that were touched on earlier about the April 2008 report showing that out of 125 offenders released under the faint hope clause, 15 had been returned to custody. In fact, one statistic was left out—that is, as of April 2008, one of them was still unlawfully at large.
So at least one in eight of the people who were paroled under the faint hope clause were returned to custody. And far from it being merely a technical concern, I personally regard every parole violation as a gamble lost. Every parole violation represents a failure of the faint hope clause, and every parole violation represents a risk to Canadians across the country.
That's what I want to ask you about, Minister, because under your bill, if it had been enforced, none of these people would have been released under the faint hope clause. That seems to fit in with your policy to keep our streets safer, and it seems to fit in with the government's policy. Is that another piece of this puzzle? Are you proposing this bill as part of the government's policy to make streets safer for Canadians?