Our experience shows us that we cannot assume the young person's risk of re-offending from the nature of the offence, however serious it may be; nor can we assume that rehabilitation services will have no effect on them.
The final recommendation relates to adult sentencing. We are pleased to see codification of the decisions the Supreme Court has made. However, and again in the spirit of maintaining a separate system, we do not believe there is any need for Parliament to interfere in the exercise of the prosecutor's discretion. The prosecutor is in a position to do a case-by-case assessment of the possibility of adult sentencing. We believe the law regarding adult sentencing is working very well at present to ensure the long-term protection of society and identify young persons for whom the criminal justice system is not working.
As Quebec's experience shows, very few young persons are sentenced as adults, but the rigorous exercise done every time an application is made very clearly shows that there are no flaws in the present system in this regard.