Mr. Speaker, my question is to the member who spoke eloquently and made some good points. There is one area in which I need some clarification.
He spoke compellingly about the head start program. We know that in the head start program there is discretion. He said that there is no financial cut-off. For example, one cannot turn away children from affluent communities because oftentimes they need guidance.
The hon. member spoke compellingly about his role as a physician, about three girls who came to see him, about his treatment of patients, which requires discretion, and certainly the discretion of a good physician to be able to examine his or her patients and come to a conclusion about what is the best treatment.
I think he would feel, as would most practitioners, that it would be wrong to legislate what a physician has to do. For example, when prescribing drugs, that they must or must not prescribe certain drugs, depending upon how they see the case.
The member talked about parole eligibility. I know that he wanted to be clear on this. He said that an individual who is sentenced to 12 years only serves two. I think what he meant was that they have eligibility for parole at the end of one-sixth of their sentence, which is different from saying that they would be released. They are eligible to apply to a board which would exercise its discretion in determining whether that offender has changed or met certain requirements; the same discretion that he would exercise as a physician or the same discretion that those who run the head start program would exercise.
Surely he agrees that the parole board should have that same discretion to make those judgment calls.