Mr. Speaker, I think children in B.C., like all children across Canada, are still protected by this legislation. It has been declared invalid by a court at the trial level, therefore it is inoperative, but it still exists.
When I was a law student, I remember that certain provisions were constitutional, in terms of the distributions of powers or whatever, even if they had been declared inoperative by courts at lower levels. So long as the final court of appeal did not make the decision, the law continued to be applied as if nothing had changed. It concerned the distribution of powers that Quebec was calling for. Therefore, an inoperative provision is still applicable.
I think that, in B.C., unless I am mistaken, and that can be checked, crown prosecutors and politicians, especially, will still be able to work to protect children, to build cases or whatever. If the crown has everything it needs to take legal proceedings, it can still do so, subject to the final decision in appeal.
Here again, given the importance of this issue, I am sure the appeal court judges will do everything in their power to expedite the matter and hear the case quickly and especially to reach a decision as soon as they can.