I'm sorry, it's clause 17. It's also page 17. It's adding proposed section 486.31 to the Criminal Code, and I struggle to understand it. Initially, I thought it was maybe a publication ban, but I see a couple of pages later that clause 19 deals with publication bans.
As I say, I had trouble wrapping my head around what this provision was intended to say. There's no legislative background or legislative summary, so it's very hard to know what's intended here. The marginal notes don't help much, so it's a profoundly troubling provision, if I'm reading it correctly, and I don't know that anybody's brought this up before, so I felt I ought to do so.
Finally, let me just add on a bit of a whimper, and it's more of a minor point, that there's a provision in this bill with respect to changing the rules for spousal incompetency. It may well be that it's a good change; certainly, it's the way the provinces have gone. It may be the way of the future and it may be the way the federal criminal legislation should go as well, but it's a big change and it's deserving of study and careful consideration. It's a little bit out of place in a bill that's about victims' rights. There are numerous exceptions to the spousal incompetency rule that permit spouses to testify when they're the victims, and I believe when the children are the victims as well.
I'd submit that this provision would get the attention it deserves if it were severed and dealt with in another bill dealing with criminal procedure and evidence more generally. It's an important change and one deserving of careful consideration.
Thank you very much.