I have a question for the department officials.
I may have misread the proposed subsection 722.2(1), which states that “the court shall consider any statement...”. This does not mean that the court is required to consider it from A to Z. It means that it can give consideration to the statement without giving it much weight. The court can still exercise its discretion. At least that is how I see it.
It is not a bad thing that the court considers the statement. I would not want anyone to think that I am not in favour of the court considering the statement. However, I want the court to be able to exercise its discretion. In my view, subsection 722.2(1) still gives this discretionary power to the court.
Am I missing something?