Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There are a couple of things. One, I'm not disagreeing with Mr. Brock, but I know from my history in policing that there are some people who don't know what a prohibited firearm is and some people might have a handgun and not realize that it's prohibited. That's a possibility on a first offence. With respect to the clause we're discussing right now, I can understand a first offence not having a mandatory minimum. I totally understand that.
On the second or even the third offence, a serious offence, I couldn't imagine myself going to my rural community, standing up and saying to the people who are there, who have been victims or who are afraid, “Oh, by the way, we parliamentarians just struck down and we don't feel there's any need to have a mandatory minimum penalty for someone who's convicted three times of having a prohibited firearm.” I just can't imagine anyone here going home and saying, “We had a great day in Parliament today. We just decided that we wouldn't have mandatory minimums on a third offence.”
I don't even know why we need to discuss this. We should be able to vote on this without even thinking about it. Of course there should be a mandatory minimum for the third offence.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.