Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We have heard about this through the grapevine now and again and we have seen it in the briefing notes prepared by the Library of Parliament. It seemed that Mr. Wilks, the sponsor of this bill, might be bringing forward an amendment, because there could be some confusion.
First, I assume that you have Mr. Wilks' written consent for this. I will take your word for it, but I just want to be sure that we have his consent. My problem is not about that at all. What concerns me a little is that the crux of the analysis, the study that has just been done on Bill C-299, dealt with the offence specifically and the minimum sentence to such an extent that Mr. Cotler tried to have the minimum sentence removed. The very goal of this bill was to add a minimum sentence to section 279 of the Criminal Code.
As a parliamentarian called upon to create a new piece of legislation, I am concerned about the problems I see in some clauses that seem to be contradictory. I wonder if we are getting involved in an amendment that has not been fully discussed or analyzed.
I think we should have a representative from the department here. Will someone be here at some stage?
Is she there? Can she come to the table, please?