Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.
I am sure that the Minister of Justice shares my concern about the issue of violence against women. I am not as convinced that the minister sees addressing this problem both legislatively and in program funding must be a central theme, not simply peripheral to other considerations.
While I know that the minister is going to introduce amendments to the Criminal Code on the so-called drunkenness defence, I want to ask the minister if he will recognize that it is not the drunkenness defence or the use of drugs that should be used as a defence in violence against women but that violence itself?