Mr. Speaker, if the hon. parliamentary secretary keeps talking he is going to convince me to vote against this bill. I will not because I see the need for some aspects of the bill.
However, the penalties imposed by the courts are no justification for reducing the penalties as prescribed by law. If that is the case then what do we do with this new conditional sentencing law that allows violent offenders to walk free? It is the courts that render those sentences, only because the law has been passed to allow them to do that.
Surely we cannot justify the reduction of penalties simply because some judges deem that a rapist should walk free and that we should reduce the penalty-