Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The amendment is before you. This one is fairly straightforward. It would exempt minors from these reverse onus provisions that we just talked about. I need to remind you that minors could still be prosecuted for commission of this offence to the full extent of the law. That doesn't change with the Liberal amendment. The simple change is that they would be prosecuted in the normal course with the crown having the full burden of proof throughout the proceedings and not having the benefit of this rebuttable presumption. So it does not change the fact that minors can be prosecuted. It does change this evidentiary shift that is contained in the law now. That's what this proposes to do.
I would ask all members of the committee to join me in inserting this important safeguard into the bill.
Thank you.