Maybe I will start and then, Ms. Beckles, I'll leave you some time.
In responding to that, I want to share my own personal story because of the comment Mr. Gélinas was making earlier.
My family immigrated to Vancouver when I was 13. When I turned 15, I was on a date in a movie theatre on Granville Street. Granville Street used to have two small movie theatres. At the end of the movie, I walked out with my date and saw maybe 10 Black kids. Half of them I knew and half of them I didn't know. I walked over to say hi to them and within 30 seconds of my being there, we were all detained by the police. It was the first time I had ever encountered a police officer in Canada: handcuffed and seated on the corner of the street on Granville, with people walking by.
Now, later on I came to understand that some of the boys I had seen were involved in some crimes and things like that, and some of them might have even had guns. Some of them might have even been part of gangs, but concepts such as party liability, mandatory minimum sentences and things like that swoop in kids who have bright futures and snuff them out.
In my case, the only reason I was able to avoid any connection to that was that the person I was on a date with had privilege. Her father interceded on my behalf to say to the Vancouver Police at the time that I wasn't part of that group and was some kid who had just come out of a date at the movie theatre with his daughter.
Fifteen years after that day, I'm now the president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. I now am a partner at a large national firm. I now lead a practice group. I now go out and motivate kids to tell them that law is an opportunity for them.
What these kinds of laws—mandatory minimum sentencing laws—and grand statements about gang activities, neighbourhoods and things like that do is to sweep up all kids, regardless of potential, regardless of ability and regardless of what the future holds for them. I'm here today because of that. It's because of that encounter on that street corner on Granville that day. It reminded me that my potential could have easily been snuffed out because I happened to have crossed the street to say hi to somebody I knew.
I want to stop there and give Ms. Beckles a chance to speak to the law, but narratives are powerful, and I wanted to show you my narrative and my personal story. I'm a Christian and I grew up in a Christian faith, and, but for the sheer grace of God, I would be the person you're labelling as a criminal and I would now be the person you labelled as a gangster—and my potential was so much more.