I take my cue from victims. I take my cue from their experience. This is all a matter of perspective. In fact, I think it's safe to say that law is a matter of perspective, certainly when it comes to these sorts of difficult issues. The perspective that I bring to this is not the perspective of someone who taught human rights policy. It's not necessarily the perspective of an MP. It's the perspective of someone who takes very seriously the victim experience.
The philosopher, Theodor Adorno, said that the condition of truth is allowing suffering to speak. When you ask what difference it would have made, I think—and I know because I've spoken to so many victims—it would have made a huge difference for those individuals.
When the term “aggravated assault” is applied, it describes their experience, but the term “aggravated assault” can also be used to describe a fist fight. That is not appropriate. What these people have endured in the examples that I gave, Ted, and in the many other examples that exist, is torture. We need to call crimes what they are. We need to acknowledge that experience. When we do, healing can begin.