Thank you very much, Mr. Seeback.
As someone who has practised criminal law, you know that for years this has been a problem. I suggest that Mr. Wilks as well would know that dealing with consecutive penalties, mandatory minimums, maximums, etc., is very much a part of this bill. We have seen problems with conditions of probation and peace bonds and recognizance that are put in place as a proactive measure to try to protect the public, first and foremost, but that also allow for some modicum of control of behaviour, so there are prohibitions on drinking, or possession of weapons, or being around a child.
The history and the statistics will sadly bear out that the vast majority of sexual offences against children happen in a dwelling house by a person who is known to the child. Putting parameters around access to the child is what many of these preventative measures are intended to do. Sadly, these conditions are routinely breached. In our opinion, there has to be some consequence to that, and that's what we're seeking to do here. Through this bill, we're seeking to put in place increased penalties for breaches of probation orders or peace bonds that have real consequences, particularly when in concert with a breach of probation it results in another criminal offence.
Unfortunately, these breaches were very often treated as part of the nature of the business: we'll just add that on as a concurrent sentence. There was no specific recognition of that when a sentence was meted out by a judge.
This attempts to change that. It ups the ante, if you will, for the maximum sentence, when it comes to the breaching of these particular measures. The general rule that these offences...depending on whether they're prosecuted by summary or indictment, is reflected in the seriousness and impact of breaching those types of conditions that are meant to prevent further offences. That's captured in this bill. It is an important part of the message that we want to send to the public and to offenders, that these conditions are serious and are to be abided by.