Mr. Speaker, I am not going to comment on the particular case to which the member has referred, but I will be happy to respond to his broader point. I do so as follows.
The cases in the Supreme Court of Canada in recent years, including Daviault as recently as a month ago and Bernard in 1988, identified the difficulty in dealing with intoxication from the perspective of the criminal law, primarily because intoxication, depending on the degree, goes to the ability of the accused person to form the intent which is an integral part of the offence as the law is written at present.
In each of those cases the court expressed the invitation to Parliament to consider alternative ways of expressing the law to overcome that impediment. On Saturday last the government accepted that invitation. We published a paper expressly for the purpose of examining alternatives in that regard. We are solicit-
ing during a decent period the opinions of Canadians including experts on the subject. We will reformulate as necessary the criminal law in order to ensure that people are accountable for their conduct.