Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Dover, what I understand from your testimony is that there is a resource problem in the community. You say that pregnant women come out of prison and don't know where to go sleep that night. You talk about cases where people are found guilty without their full background being considered to try to understand the root of the behaviour that should be corrected. You brought up a number of similar situations that make us think there is really a problem in terms of resources. I don't know whether that is the case, but that is my understanding.
You also mentioned that the victims and the accused sometimes live in the same community. You talked about a case where two of the accused and two of the victims were among your former clients. In such cases, people must learn to live together. My understanding is that the behaviour needs to be corrected.
In that regard, Ms. Dover, don't the victims need to feel that the justice system is meant to protect them? I understand there are exceptional circumstances where they will say a minimum sentence should not apply. We agree on that. However, generally speaking, would it not be better to keep minimum sentences for social peace, instead of abolishing them and letting the victims of those crimes have to face the same individuals overnight who, in principle, according to the current Criminal Code, should be in prison?
Shouldn't we think about ways to better protect victims?