You'd raised a question about the practice in B.C., which is commonplace, around sentencing an offender to a day in jail in default of payment. In our submissions as intervenors, we actually appended a list of over 100 cases in B.C. in which a sentencing judge ordered for a surcharge to be payable forthwith, and then, in default of payment, ordered that person to be sentenced to a day in jail.
I do want to be very clear that in raising this issue, I'm not in any way attempting to vilify B.C. judges. It's quite the opposite. We are acknowledging that this legislation as it stands puts B.C. judges in an untenable position where they are faced with a defendant who they know cannot pay and there are no other reasonable or proportionate means by which to sentence that person. It really is, as we called it in our factum, an act of mercy rather than malice.