Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Julian. Welcome to our committee.
Section 43 of the Criminal Code is quite short and simple to read. It talks about using force to correct a pupil or child. That's what you want to be able to accept a defence on. From what I understand of your argument and the references you've given us, correcting a child, imposing corporal punishment—I use the word “punishment”, since that is what we're talking about here—by spanking him, for example, is rejected these days by a large majority of governments. I'd say that I tend to agree with that.
However, we're talking about using force, and we are talking about fathers, mothers and teachers. Our colleague Mr. Moore talked about it, and I believe Ms. Dhillon also said that it couldn't be denied that there has been an increase in violence in our schools. We know that it may be useful or even essential for a teacher, or even a parent, to use force to control a pupil or child, rather than to correct it.
Could you tell us whether you think the use of force to control a child in certain circumstances may be useful or necessary? Once again, I'm not talking about punishment, since we agree on this issue, and it is therefore settled.