I apologize for my lengthy answers, but nobody gives me time to speak at home.
Look, section 13 was critically important. It provided the protections that you just referenced, and I think it is clear that Canadians and groups within Canada need them.
The problem was that ironically, groups or individuals we should be concerned about were using section 13 as a way of pushing back against those who were raising legitimate free expression ideas or concerns about particular topics. It was chilling, or more precisely freezing, the ability of people to offer critical comment about things of public interest without fear of being brought before some judicial process to account for what they said, because others were claiming that was triggering hate against them.
That was the vulnerability of section 13. There were a whole range of ways to deal with it. You have them in front of you. You've clearly done the research and I would invite the committee to look carefully at those, because it either has to be brought back in a better construct..... Irwin Cotler's formulation—I won't go through it now, as some of you are familiar with it and you can easily access it—was probably the most compelling way to restructure section 13, or provide direction to law enforcement, the public prosecution process, the attorneys general to become much more aggressive and active in applying the provisions of the Criminal Code.