Thank you for the question.
I was never a criminal lawyer, but I suppose my past clients might be considered criminals by some. I don't know exactly how that act should operate. From our perspective, prevention is the key, and from what we also understand, the purpose of this exacerbated sentencing is to increase the deterrent effect of sentencing. We recognize fully that people get to this point in the judicial process after much else has occurred—detection, investigation, and prosecution—for all of which we encourage more allocation of resources and greater sensitization to the issue.
Detection and prevention, of course, ought to be our very first initiative. That doesn't fall to the Criminal Code, but we believe very strongly that this initiative and the kind of prominence that will be given to it will be enough to start spurring on both setting up priorities at the provincial level, which have to allocate the resources for prosecution and investigation, as well as the average Canadian who recognizes now that this no longer has to be a silent and hidden offence, that there is something the system will do something about and something they can do something about. Obviously our recommendations go beyond this provision to extend to the other kinds of resources and a comprehensiveness to the resources that are available so that the average neighbour who sees something going on knows exactly what to do next.