Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank the two witnesses for being here.
I'll start with you, Ms. McCuaig.
It's an incredibly compelling life situation that you've lived, and on behalf of the Liberals, and I think all committee members, we feel so bad and sorry for your family's situation.
I want to thank you, Reeve, for being here. I'm a former municipal fellow, and I understand that the municipal level is the first line of democracy. You often hear what people are thinking first before it goes--it depends on how you look at it--up or down the line to Parliament and to legislatures.
I want to thank you both for being here. I have just a couple of questions.
The first is to you, Reeve Rausch. I wonder if you could elaborate on some of the comments you made in your very cogent presentation. You referenced the State of Texas as an example of a regime in which mandatory minimums were not efficacious, were not productive. I think that's what you said. I want you to elaborate on that.
The second question I have for you is this. You agree wholeheartedly, or the RM does, that the protection of society should be an important principle of the act. I want you to respond to this comment. It's a little ambiguous currently as to what the YCJA's overriding principle is, but suffice it to say the amendment proposed by this bill would make the protection of society the primary--the only--principle. Would you therefore agree that making it an--an--important principle, on a par with rehabilitation and public safety and all that sort of thing, would be a wise approach, rather than making it just the primary principle?