Mr. Speaker, may I begin by emphasizing what this discussion paper was about. We are engaged in a process for the first time in 100 years of reviewing the general part of the Criminal Code to determine whether it should be changed or modernized. In the course of that, this discussion paper raises questions, not public policy but just questions, that are worthy of examination. It does not reflect government policy.
I had hoped that the paper would be drafted to reflect my own perspective. My own personal view is that I am very much opposed to any general defence based on culture. However, it is important, if we are going to have a discussion, that we at least identify a list of questions that have been raised by law reform commissions and by legal journals in the past.
I am especially troubled at the suggestion on the weekend that just raising these questions might create the spectre of justification for female genital mutilation. We have been at pains over the past six months to emphasize that this practice is criminal, will be investigated and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law where it is detected.
I hope what we have launched on the weekend is an open discussion about fundamental principles of criminal justice. In closing, I say that every reform we have put forward in the House to the criminal law has been to make people more accountable not less accountable.