I think it was MP Côté who said that he might be amenable to a longer period of time, which was very reassuring to me. In your remarks earlier, I noted that you said five years might not be enough and that ten might be more appropriate. So you would agree with that. You would say that not only would it bring comfort to you but that if keeping children safe is your main goal, this would go toward it.
I guess my point here is that Madame Boivin said something else. She said: “I'm looking and I don't see a problem” with regard to sentencing and judges.
I disagree completely. I look around and I do see a problem, because from what I can tell and from what Chief Freeman said earlier, the judges are rarely implementing the maximum sentences.
So my question to you, as a mother and as someone who knows this issue well and who I'm sure knows the law well, do you see a problem and do you think it's a good idea for judges to be given this directive and to be given a minimum, knowing that it doesn't mean that they would impose only the minimum. I think we can give our judges more credit than that. They know that a minimum is a minimum.
Do you think it's important for us to be doing this?