Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
I think everyone sympathizes with you, given the events you had to deal with. Whether it is police forces or business people who experience these riots, it is never pleasant. A number of years ago, when I was participating in a lawyers' convention in Quebec City, we were caught up in a Saint-Jean-Baptiste demonstration. It was supposed to be a celebration, but it turned into a riot. Nothing is more stressful than being caught in the middle of something like that. It isn't funny either for those who participate in the gathering totally peacefully.
The issue we have now is determining whether the bill from our Conservative colleague, Mr. Richards, and the amendment he is proposing to the Criminal Code, will really allow us to achieve the goal being sought. We are all in favour of virtue. We would all like to be able to arrest those who are ill-intentioned in a crowd and take them out before the trouble starts.
The problem is that very often, until the trouble starts, these people are difficult to identify. You both recognize the right people have to participate in a peaceful assembly, no matter the way they express themselves, whether they have a scarf on their face or not. In fact, the scarf is not the problem; it's what the person wants to do with the scarf that is problematic. I think we agree on that.
My question is for Mr. Rai. Do you not already have enough power? We haven't talked about it yet, but section 31 of the Criminal Code can be used. If police have reasonable suspicion that someone is ill-intentioned, they can arrest that person beforehand. If that is not done, it might be because they have to wait until something illegal happens, they have to wait until the person commits the offence. It practically becomes a catch-22 situation. I don't see how the amendment proposed by the bill can give you the tools you need.