My impression of your testimony is that you paint a picture of a fairly intelligent--which may be too strong a word--savvy offender who will only be specifically deterred if he understands he will be removed from society. Yet what we heard across Canada is that youth in particular, because we have a separate act for them, are unable to form, as we do in civil laws, the same sort of mature, specific intent for anything. That's certainly the case in civil law. You can't be liable in many events because of that diminished ability to form an intent. So square that for me.
On May 13th, 2010. See this statement in context.