Mr. Speaker, I cannot ask my question without first wishing my colleague from Hochelaga—Maisonneuve happy birthday.
I would like to know if my learned colleague, who knows and studies every single piece of legislation introduced in the House, would agree that, in the responsibility placed on citizens and in the degree of criminality assigned to the actions of citizens, there should be some kind of gradation whereby sentences should also take criminal intent into account?
I totally agree that nobody should drive while impaired. Only a fool would say that it is acceptable, except that in Quebec—and the same thing must be happening throughout Canada—there is an increase in hit and run incidents.
Will the harsher sentences provided for in this bill cause a further increase in hit and run incidents? For example, when the person who inadvertently exceeds the speed limit has to pay a heavier fine than the man who assaulted his neighbour with a baseball bat, there must be something wrong.
I would like the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve to tell us if it is fair to say that the penalty imposed for a reprehensible act must be proportionate not only to the act itself but also to the intent of committing that act? The mens rea, or guilty intent, principle seems to be totally ignored in this bill. We know that there is no crime without the two main elements, namely actus reus and mens rea, the act and the intent.
Here is an example I studied in law school. Someone breaks into a residence, stabs the occupant in the back—and it has happened —and the occupant panics and jumps from the second floor to escape the aggressor and dies from the fall.
The courts said that the actus reus, or the act of stabbing the person, was not the cause of death. Some will say that this is an aberration. The bill before us must not lead to similar aberrations. Perhaps the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, who is celebrating his birthday today—time flies—could tell us if this is one of his concerns. Could our brilliant colleague, who is also a legal expert, tell us that?