Thank you very much for the question, Madam Chair.
It's a very good question, and I think the member brings up an interesting point. In that proposed legislation, there is no element that's different from the current element of criminal negligence. All of the elements are exactly the same, so it's not even a kind of an issue; it's a duplication of offences.
It's not that the tools aren't there. It's the willingness to use the tools that are there.
You talk about denunciation. Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code talks about sentencing principles. It reads:
(a) a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for any relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances.
Subparagraph 718.2(a)(iii) reads:
evidence that the offender, in committing the offence, abused a position of trust or authority in relation to the victim.
That is exactly the dynamic that's present in elder abuse, so the code already allows for an aggravating feature to bring a longer sentence, a harsher sentence. That is how society exhibits denunciation, in the sentencing principles. A justice who hands down a sentence is not only entitled to but is obliged to call out that specific dynamic in the elder abuse and to say, “Normally I would sentence you to a year, but I am sentencing you to 18 months to account for the fact that you took advantage of your elderly parent, who trusted you, who raised you, who loved you, who guided you, and who you were obliged to show that same respect to.”
With the greatest amount of respect, that's there already. What we need to do is to get the police and the prosecutors to investigate, and the prosecutors to prosecute.