Mr. Cotler's amendment, L-25, underscores an important principle. These people are still members of society, even if they are incarcerated for committing a crime. The purpose of incarceration is twofold: the punishment of the offender, and the undergoing of a process that will lead to rehabilitation. There are other aspects of the bill that talk about rehabilitative efforts. When a person is released he is released in the hope that he would be a law-abiding citizen who can function and contribute to society. The way to do that is to ensure that society continues to respect a citizen's rights and that they don't end, as Mr. Cotler said, at the prison door.
In learning about the law in the first instance, one of the notions that you come across is that the treatment of people who may appear to be the least desirable is a reliable measure of a society. What basic rights do you have if you're not on the right side of the law? What do you have left that is the mark of your society? How prisoners are treated, how individuals who are before the courts are treated, is important as a measure of how civilized a society we are. You don't treat them as people who are eminently entitled. If you are incarcerated, you are incarcerated for a reason. You are separated from society. But you don't lose your human rights. You don't cease to be capable of exercising your rights as an individual.
This is stated in a more positive way, but the notion here is a good one: we don't treat prisoners or inmates as the scum of the earth; we treat them as persons who we hope are able to be rehabilitated. Even someone sentenced to a long sentence has human rights, and this recognizes that. I think it is appropriate that we do this.