I will be very quick.
This is definitely related to the debate we sometimes have with ourselves and with others as well. If there is one thing in particular that I don't like, it is doing politics on the back of seniors.
When all the parties are campaigning, we go to meet with seniors in long-term care facilities or independent senior residences and we sometimes hear horror stories. Just now we were talking about severe punishment. That is all very well, but, once again, we have to get to the charge; the offence has to be recognized. And we have a problem because seniors are afraid and do not dare to talk about it and report it. They are not going to say that their son—pardon the expression—is shafting them. I have heard many stories like that in Gatineau. That is heartbreaking. The responsibility to report it should not fall on the shoulders of one person in particular. I think that we, as members of society, are all responsible for reporting it if we see situations like that.
Ms. Beaulieu, you said something in the beginning that struck me. I was flipping through some papers just now. If I am not mistaken, you thanked legislators and the government for not introducing the concept of vulnerability. Yet the summary of the bill, which is still the explanation of the bill, says that “this enactment amends the Criminal Code to add vulnerability due to age as an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes”. Are you still proud of us? Could you maybe briefly explain what you were trying to tell us?
My understanding is that the proposed amendment to section 718 actually seeks to make a person's age an aggravating factor for abuse. Does that not sound a bit like vulnerability? Or perhaps I have misunderstood the wording.