Maybe this was a wrong assumption on my part. I was under the impression that there might be an amendment contemplated already to this bill to exclude parents and perhaps other relations of the child, in order to avoid a conflict with some of the other sections.
We could have an interesting discussion about how broad that sort of exclusion should be—whether it would cover just parents, grandparents, step-parents, or just people in loco parentis. There could be conflicts between this section and the other sections of the bill. That concern could be somewhat mitigated if contemplated amendments are made. What is clear is that one could fall under the prior sections, and it could fall under this section. Crown attorneys across Canada are honourable. They do their job very well, and I count many of them as friends of mine. I have the utmost respect for them.
That leads to this problem about the shift in discretion. When the crown attorney is confronted with a mandatory minimum sentence that isn't appropriate, with an accused that can't afford to mount a lengthy and expensive constitutional challenge, there is an incentive for the crown attorney to use her prosecutorial discretion to avoid what could be a very unjust result. Of course, that's done behind closed doors. It's not reviewable. It's not transparent. Reasons aren't provided, and it doesn't give the appearance of justice being done. There are often successful constitutional challenges to the legislation, which really should be avoided. They're expensive, and they provide uncertainty in the system. Through the Criminal Code, we should be looking to avoid uncertainty.