Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll pose my questions to Ms. Hassan or Ms. Leamon.
First of all, there is zero empirical evidence that limiting preliminary inquiries is going to save court time and address the backlog. It's nothing more than anecdotal at best. To the degree, however, that any efficiencies are going to be created, Bill C-75 still provides for preliminary inquiries—and thank goodness it does—for cases involving a maximum of a life sentence. It would seem to me that the preliminary inquiries that take the longest would involve some of those most serious offences, like murder.
Doesn't that reality just further illustrate that this is really going to do absolutely nothing to save court time? We know the statistics, which show that 86% of cases are resolved following preliminary inquiry.