Being committed to fairness and the Constitution, and ensuring that truth is the end result—I think that is the commitment we should have to both victims and offenders. The fairness, the legitimacy, of the system—the way people will cooperate with it, in the knowledge that they will not be unfairly treated, that there is sufficient accountability and framework around it—that's what reassures me. That's the reason I work with CCLA.
I believe that indeed this opposition between victims and offenders is the wrong way to present it. I think we both have an interest in a fair, truthful, rigorous system. That's our only guarantee.
Our concern about Bill S-7 is both that, in a way, these provisions are not the most effective tools, and that they haven't been on the books for the last five years. They were used once during the first five years. My sense is that there is a stronger legitimacy, a stronger position, to use the traditional criminal law route because it's tried and true. We know what it does. We know how it delivers. People have confidence in it. That's the reason why I think this is a better route than creating exceptional measures.
Can I just add one more thing?