Thank you very much, and thank you for your participation in the selection panel for the Supreme Court. I hope it was a fulfilling and worthwhile exercise for you. My understanding is that it was, and I wanted to publicly thank you for your participation in that.
You've pointed out a number of elements with respect to the aggravating circumstances sections of the Criminal Code. You pointed out, quite correctly, that there are special aggravating circumstances for individuals under the age of 18, for children, for people who abuse children or commit crimes against children, that it is a specific aggravating offence. Certainly use of the term “under 18” is consistent with youth criminal justice and basically our accepted definition of who is or who is not a child in this country. So it's consistent on that.
With respect to the provisions with respect to older Canadians, it's interesting that when you have a look at all federal legislation, you'll see that what we might consider the age of being a senior is all over the place. In the judicial community judges may retire at 75, so they become an older person at age 75—or is it 60, 65, 67?
What they tell me is that when people are abused, one of the factors is their age. It comes in combination with something else. There may be a physical or a mental attribute that goes with this that makes the person more vulnerable. You might have a situation where somebody is in wonderful health at 75 and is not suffering from any apparent disability, whereas you could have somebody 10 years younger than that whose either mental or physical abilities have considerably declined.
When we had a look at it, it seemed to me we were farther ahead by not putting down a specific age in which this would kick in, and that we would put it as we have put it there, that it's in combination with the person's age and some other element, and it should be an aggravating factor.
The important point for us, though, and it shows the increasing concern society has with respect to elderly people by mentioning it as an aggravating factor, is a recognition that what I think most of us are told when we go across this country and when we go back to our constituency, that this is a problem or it can be a problem. And particularly with the increasing age of Canada's population, I think it's a recognition of that to make the specific reference to it.
Generally, that's what they tell me. It's in combination with something else. I thought that was an appropriate way to phrase it for the Criminal Code.