Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to each of our guests for joining us today.
I want to start with the question of sentencing, both the mandatory prison sentences and the consecutive sentencing provisions in the bill. Unfortunately Mr. Kennedy is no longer with us. I would have liked to have heard his comments on those sections, but I do see that we have Mr. Fortier and Mr. Tremblay with us.
Mr. Tremblay, I believe it was you who said that Bill C-26, in your opinion, would better protect children and recognize the harm done to victims. You may know that in our last session we heard from Mr. David Butt who was here on behalf of the Kids Internet Safety Alliance and is a former crown prosecutor, and currently I think is a defence counsel. I'll just go to the bottom of his remarks about mandatory minimums. He said the mandatory minimums as proposed don't go too far. They recognize an appropriate level of moral opprobrium for the offence and they preserve judicial discretion.
We heard from the Canadian Bar Association, the Criminal Lawyers' Association, and others that they don't think that the minimum sentences contribute to deterrence, but they didn't say anything about public denunciation, the abhorrence that society feels about a crime of this nature committed against a child.
You mentioned the harm done to victims, and Mr. Butt mentioned the moral opprobrium concept, as I said, and I think it's kind of strange that we don't hear anything about that from the Canadian Bar Association or the Criminal Lawyer's Association. What's your view of mandatory prison sentences for people who commit these kinds of heinous offences against children, who are proven to have done so? What is the impact on the victims when they see both a minimum sentence that's meaningful and consecutive sentencing in a situation where the accused has committed similar offences against several children or multiple times against the same child?
Mr. Tremblay, can I hear from you and then Mr. Fortier as well?
I'd also like to hear from Ms. O'Sullivan on those issues.