Thank you, Madam Chair.
It's a pleasure to be at this committee. I'm a visitor, but I have a question and a comment to add on this.
I have some background in this. I've introduced legislation as a private member's bill in previous Parliaments on this very point, on making the assault on a health care professional—it didn't have the first responders aspect—an aggravating factor, so I have some background in this. We also heard evidence of this at the health committee in the past.
I find myself very much in agreement with Mr. Moore. The state of the law now is that a court “may” consider any factor that it would consider germane or salient at this point, so if we put in the words “may consider as an aggravating circumstance”, I think it would be no more than restating the status quo. I think what we want to do is change the status quo to send a clear message to society that assaults on health care workers are always wrong, are never okay and are always an aggravating factor.
I'm fortified by the advice, if I'm understanding it correctly, that this does not change the fact that the judge would still fashion an appropriate sentence, taking into account the very appropriate considerations that Monsieur Fortin identified, which may work to ameliorate the sentence.
We want to send a clear message that assaults on health care workers are simply not tolerated in society. I vividly remember the testimony at the health committee, to the effect that there's almost an epidemic. It's happening all the time and not just in hospitals; ambulance drivers and paramedics are facing this all the time. We must send a clear message.
Those are my comments.
I think Mr. Villetorte touched on this, but in the other sections of the Criminal Code about similar situations—like an assault on a peace officer and maybe on a transit driver, if I'm not mistaken—does it say “shall” or does it say “may”? Is it expressed as the court “must” consider it to be an aggravating circumstance or does it give the kind of discretion that Monsieur Fortin's subamendment is suggesting?