Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the minister for being with us today.
I want to emphasize that I think the context we were working with here was the creation of a gap in the law, which was maybe smaller than the public perceived, and the degree of co-operation and quick action in Parliament.
Sometimes as an institution we have a bad reputation for not being able to get things done. In this case, the consultations form an impressive list. We know that they weren't as fextensive as they might have been because of the speed that was necessary. Otherwise, we'd be sitting here now having consultations and having these hearings with the gap having been in existence for months on end. I appreciate the leadership you showed in approaching all of us to get this done.
The Supreme Court essentially gave Parliament two choices. I'd like you to talk for a minute about those two choices. In common language, the court said you could either create a new offence or fix the existing section. Can you talk a bit about why the choice was made to fix section 33.1 rather than create a new offence?