The fact that we're seeing people right now being provided in some provinces with the opportunity to work off fines.... This has been set up largely to offset the section 15 inequality that would exist if equal access to those programs were not available, something we haven't had, which the Supreme Court of Canada has already said is discriminatory; it struck down the sentence in the Wu case, in which a jail sentence had been imposed when someone was unable to pay a fine.
We would argue both that section 15 concerns arise in terms of the inequality of application and that we would end up seeing disproportionately women, aboriginal people, and people with disabilities—particularly mental health issues—in prison largely because of these sorts of provisions.
I think there is also a section in the Canadian Bill of Rights saying that the Minister of Justice shall, in accordance with the regulations, examine every regulation and determine whether it would be inconsistent with the purposes and provisions and the role of human rights protections in the bill of rights. This is another reason that it likely will be challenged.
And then there will be the cost—I'm sorry to say it, but as we've just experienced yet again—of the Department of Justice being a bottomless pit of money to fight these sorts of provisions. The government should be defending the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for all people, those who might potentially be victimized or who have been victimized, as well as those who end up in the system victimized.