Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would confirm for Madam Boivin that I just talked to Mr. Wilks, and he is 100% in favour of the government's amendment.
I do have an issue and a question. Madam Findlay has spoken about loco parentis, which of course is a decision by the court to find a person standing in the place of a parent.
For the record, I just want to make sure that this is not something that the court can find out later. In my mind, it could be a stepfather or stepmother who takes the child, and afterwards the court could determine that the person actually stood in the place of a parent during a period of time and was trying to protect that child. I don't think the idea of this exemption is to allow that person to be exempted from the finding of guilt and be exempted from that as a result of them being in the place of a parent.
I do have one question for you, Ms. Levman. I'm just wondering about something relating to the offence itself. For instance, we've had some number of cases where somebody will kidnap a child, raise that child to be their own, and then, later on, when the child is 14 or 15, we'll find out where that child is and that person will be charged.
Under these circumstances, and with this exemption, I just want to make it clear on the record that at the time of the offence, if that person were not in place as a parent or guardian, and later became a guardian—obviously a court could do that at a later date, in another jurisdiction, without full knowledge—would that person still be found guilty of the offence and not be exempted if they were later found to be a parent or guardian?