Yes, sir, I think it is. That's the short answer. As a police chief and a father of two kids that are under 16 years of age, I have absolutely no mercy and I see absolutely no justification in a circumstance where a stranger would scoop up a child—any child, male or female, under 16 years of age—and forcibly take them away from their area of safety. I see that as absolutely unforgiveable and absolutely unjustifiable, and I believe in my heart, as both a police chief and a father, that a five-year sentence should be the minimum that they should expect. I think many Canadians share that belief with me.
Let's not stop there. If it involves a firearm, certainly, it is punishable by life in jail. If it's a run-of-the-mill, straight kidnapping, I believe that if it's prosecuted as an indictable offence, the maximum is 10 years. If we were to open up this discussion even further, let's take that 10-year cap and make it life, too. So it would be a five-year minimum with a maximum of life, firearm or no firearm, whatever the case may be.
I'm emotional about this right now, I admit. This has been a brutal three years, and the Stafford and McDonald families didn't see closure when we returned Victoria's body to them. I saw more of an indication of closure when the verdict was rendered by the jury of guilty on first-degree murder. Then I saw closure in their eyes. They will still have to work to heal in the next few months and years, because Victoria was a perfect child—a blond-haired, blue-eyed, eight-year-old girl whom any one of us would be privileged to have. But she is no more.