Thank you, Chair.
We'll be opposing the amendment for the simple reason that it runs contrary to fundamental principles of this bill and the military justice system. Mr. Harris says that the NDP accepts that the military justice system is different from the civilian system. Then he goes on to suggest that it is harsher. The effect of this amendment would be to make it more lenient, in a dramatic way.
If this amendment went through, and I, as a serving member of the Canadian Forces, were to commit an assault or an assault causing bodily harm and elect to be tried at summary trial rather than by court martial, my criminal record would not pass into the civilian system. Those are offences under the Criminal Code of Canada. There are eight such offences. If they are tried at summary trial in the military system, they should show up in the civilian system. That, to our mind, is common sense.
I think the real grievance, or hesitation, that Mr. Harris has, that the NDP have, is about the summary trial system itself. He raised the question of its procedural fairness, which indeed was attacked by Clayton Ruby, but by no one else among the witnesses that I remember, certainly not by those charged with reviewing the system, who think not just the military justice system but the summary trial system would stand a charter challenge, a constitutional challenge. And those are very eminent jurists indeed.
Even while proposing this more lenient approach to Criminal Code offences that if tried at summary trial would not generate a criminal record, Mr. Harris doesn't want to revise the summary trial system. There have been no amendments to that effect. They would be dramatic, far-reaching. We would oppose them, almost certainly. But he has not proposed that.