I will just clarify my earlier submission. If I've led this committee to believe that I think mandatory minimum sentences should be abolished only for members of the racialized community, that is certainly not my submission. The submission is that mandatory minimum sentences should be repealed because they affect members of all communities and not just those among the racialized ones.
With respect to abolishing mandatory minimum sentences, my submission would be for Parliament to do whatever it can to introduce discretion into the hands of the judges—the judges who hear the background information about the offender and understand why a person committed the offence—and leave them with the responsibility of ensuring that the sentence they impose on that offender is proportionate to the offence and the offender. That is what is going to make our justice system a better place for everyone involved, and that includes the offender, the judge and the victim.