Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I have to say, Mr. Moore, by your own logic, this would make the Conservatives soft on crime, because you have always argued that the mandatory minimums do something to affect crime.
What we heard repeatedly from witnesses, and what we know from all of the peer-reviewed literature in criminology, is that mandatory minimums do nothing but increase jail time. They do not have a deterrent effect. They do not, by increasing jail time, make people less likely to offend. In fact, if anything, the literature shows that it makes people more likely to reoffend.
I think you're right in identifying that everybody around the table is interested in keeping the community safer and preventing more victims in our society. What we disagree on is whether mandatory minimums [Technical difficulty—Editor].
In this case, I'm of course going to vote against your amendment, because it restores a mandatory minimum that Bill C-5 would [Technical difficulty—Editor].