Mr. Speaker, the due diligence defence is available in law for regulatory offences under the charter of rights and freedoms, even if not specified in an act. Therefore, it is not necessary to explicitly provide for this defence in this bill. However, there are instances where due diligence is explicitly found as a defence in other acts. Therefore, the government is agreeable to this amendment.
Having said that, we must exempt offences under section 50, which deals with offences regarding nuclear weapons, from having recourse to this defence. This is because the penalty for this offence, which is up to 10 years imprisonment, indicates that this is more in the nature of a crime than a regulatory offence, making a due diligence defence inappropriate.
We agree with the intent of this motion so long as a due diligence defence is not available for the offence associated with nuclear weapons. We therefore propose an alternative amendment. I move:
That Bill C-23 be amended by adding after line 12 on page 36 the following:
51(1). A person shall not be found to have contravened any provision of this act, other than section 50, if it is established the person exercised all due diligence to prevent its commission.