Semantically, could we just separate between people who are committing multiple offences and people who have committed offences in the past? When somebody has reached a point in time--five years from their last offence--they are no longer in my mind a repeat offender, a chronic offender. And if somebody continues to break the law, they would not be eligible for a pardon. There is already that cooling-off period.
I think the minister is pulling in two things. He's talking about somebody who is actively breaking the law and confusing that with somebody who has had a period of a minimum of five years since they've broken the law. I think at that point, the pattern is broken.
In terms of the numbers, I can't say. I am told that the number of Canadians with a criminal record approaches 3.5 million. How many of those would be multiple offences, I couldn't tell you.