First of all, I didn't come to the Department of Justice in 2006. It was 2007, just a little over four years ago now.
I'm aware of a number of reports. Sometimes I'm told that the Americans have very tough mandatory penalties in this area. There are a number of Commonwealth countries that don't have mandatory sentencing. This is a Canadian approach. I think it will work, Monsieur Ménard.
I hope this gets your support, because we're protecting those vulnerable people in society. I appreciate that there are those, including yourself, who don't like mandatory penalties. But again we have to send out the right message. The problem is getting much worse over the last few years.
This is what law enforcement agencies tell me. They tell me that the number of images, for instance, since 2003 has quadrupled, all of them depicting children being abused and exploited on the Internet. We have to take action on that. The problem hasn't been getting better these last four or five years, and this is exactly what we need.
I want you to have a particular look at those new offences that are in the business of preventing this kind of activity: two people getting together to discuss setting up a child or the person who gives sexually explicit material to a child. These are designed to stop the child sexual exploitation before it reaches its inevitable conclusion.
So intervening ahead of time, in my opinion, is updating the law and is exactly where we have to go. The problem has gotten much worse in the last few years, and we need legislation like this to deal with it.