Mr. Speaker, I want to pose a question to my hon. colleague from the Progressive Conservatives in light of the questions put forward by the member for Mississauga South.
It seems to be the Liberal way to put forward some half-baked idea after years and years of study. Then the opposition is supposed to fall all over itself applauding the government's initiatives when, especially after taking as long as it has to come up with the sex offender registry, we would think it would be able to do it right. I refer especially to the issue of retroactivity.
As my hon. colleague from the Progressive Conservatives knows, and he referred to it briefly in his remarks, the fact is that roughly 4 out of 10 who are convicted of sexual assaults are repeat offenders; in other words, they will do it again. The whole notion that the government would bring forward a sex offender registry and not make it retroactive out of fear that it might be challenged on constitutional grounds is so completely ludicrous that it has Canadians from coast to coast to coast up in arms over it. They just do not see the sense to it and, quite frankly, neither do I. I do not see the sense in bringing this forward without making it retroactive.
Specifically on the fact that the recidivism rate is 40% for sexual offenders, which is my understanding of it, I would like my colleague from the PCs to address that point.