I listened very carefully, sir, to the recommendations you made to the committee in your opening statement. There is, in my view, a lot of similarity between what you are proposing and what our party has been proposing. In fact, we introduced a new private member's bill called the “jail not bail act”. I believe you were at the press conference a few weeks ago.
At the heart of that bill is to replace the so-called “principle of restraint” under section 493.1 of the Criminal Code, which essentially states that judges must release the accused at the earliest opportunity on the least restrictive conditions. Practically speaking, this means that regardless of what the offence is, regardless of the impact it has on the community or the victim, regardless of the criminal record, which may establish a pattern of breaching court orders or a pattern of committing the same offence over and over again, and quite frankly, regardless of the number of prior releases the person may be on, that person should be released.
At the core of your recommendations, sir, do you believe the principle of restraint has to be rescinded?