Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and I thank the witnesses very much for their anticipated testimony this afternoon.
Bill C-226, which is an act to amend the Criminal Code (offences in relation to conveyances) and the Criminal Records Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts, is essentially about our criminal law justice approach to driving under the influence of alcohol.
As I read the bill, it can be broken down into several general buckets or categories. One is the introduction of random Breathalyzer testing. The second is the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for offences under this particular category of offence, applied, some might argue, more strictly than in the past. Third is another category of technical provisions that have an impact on the way these offences are both investigated and eventually prosecuted in the event that charges are laid.
The area I'd like to focus on first is the one addressing mandatory minimum sentences. As I assume most if not all of you will know, the Supreme Court of Canada recently commented on mandatory minimum sentences and on how in certain circumstances they can be vulnerable constitutionally. I'm looking in particular at proposed section 320.19, proposed paragraphs 320.2(a) and 320.2(b), and proposed subsections 320.21(1) and 320.21(3). I don't think we need to go through them verbatim, but looking at them through that lens, given that there are a number of provisions, could you comment generally on whether the introduction of a mandatory minimum sentence regime in the context of this bill might be vulnerable to a similar constitutional challenge.