Thank you.
I'll be very brief. I'm going to give you a bit of information and you can comment on it or not, as you wish.
The parliamentary secretary raised the importance of this particular piece of legislation. I'd like to inform the witnesses that in the previous Parliament—in fact, it was in the second session of the 40th Parliament, which means before the prorogation of December 2009—the government tabled this bill. It only sat at first reading for one day before the government minister moved second reading. It was debated for four days—it spent four days in the House for second reading debate—and then was sent to the committee.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister prorogued the House, and in so doing killed this piece of legislation. When the House resumed on March 31, the government waited 61 days before the minister again moved first reading. He then waited 154 days before moving second reading.
Now, you may not be familiar with parliamentary procedure, but opposition parties have no control over what government legislation is tabled or when the government decides, in its wisdom, to move debate at second reading so that debate can actually begin. It controls all of that, so I'm giving you this information. In fact, after the government let it sit at first reading for 154 days and finally moved second reading, we only debated it for two days in the House, because the opposition parties clearly wanted to deal with this legislation with some importance and give it priority.
You may wish to comment on that information and these facts, or you may not wish to comment. That is your privilege.
I have one question. There has been debate on an ongoing basis in this Parliament and in previous Parliaments about the issue of early release at one-sixth of the sentence. The government did not bring forth any kind of measure in this particular bill.
Because that has also been an irritant: you have had offenders convicted of white-collar crime who are released at one-sixth of their sentence. I'd like to know if you have any comments about whether you believe that should have been found in this bill.