Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I don't have much to say about this amendment. I actually find the logic behind it somewhat unusual. On the one hand, our colleague tells us that a similar offence already exists, which I have been repeating over and over throughout these hearings on the bill, to the point of exhaustion. However, finally we can at least agree on something. Yet this cannot be considered a similar offence. An expert from the Justice Department told us that there were differences in terms of intent. Furthermore, we also heard all the comments made by government members in that regard.
With Bill C-309, we are creating a provision which is incredibly vague from a legal standpoint. In my opinion, this bill will, unfortunately, generate more problems than it does solutions, in terms of what we are all trying to do, for the reasons I already explained at great length, partly on Tuesday, and partly this morning. There is an attempt here to impose a 10-year sentence, supposedly because they are similar offences.
At the very least, we should ensure that the Crown will not have to determine which indictment to proceed under or whether it is pertinent to rely on subsection 351(2) or subsection 65(2) because of the different sentences. I, personally, thought it was more similar. However, I noted that fact that our colleague, Mr. Goguen, considers the two offences to be very similar.
Unfortunately, because of the way section 65 is drafted, imposing a 10-year term of imprisonment does not necessarily do justice to the goals we are trying to achieve here.