Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to pick up on this discussion on concurrent sentences. I know that the Liberal Party is expressing some concern, in talking about how you'd be taking away a judge's discretion. I think that's where they’re going. We talk about this a lot on this committee in different ways with respect to different Criminal Code sanctions.
Mr. Hooper, maybe you can comment on this.
My view is that when you have established case law, the norm is concurrent sentencing, which is what we have now. Judges have the option, but they haven't exercised it. If we, as Parliament, want to show our condemnation of this type of behaviour, we have to move the goalposts. The way you move the goalposts and the way you get judges out of that sentencing rut, where they continue to put forward a concurrent sentence, is to change the legislation. You've sent that signal, and then the goalposts actually get moved.
That's my belief on why this is so important with respect to this particular issue, and certainly some others, but I would like to have your comment on that.