Mr. Speaker, I thought the member's speech was excellent. I want to comment on four points and primarily agree and reinforce what the member said. I also am glad that he told me what was in the article on Trafalgar because I ripped it out of the paper and have not had a chance to read it yet.
On the first point on promulgating our laws abroad, I do not think that is a problem, for two reasons. One is that all the countries in the world that are signed on to this agree with the same concepts or are doing the same thing in this particular case. We have a sort of world unanimity and we are exporting our law in this particular law just to apply to Canadians who are overseas. We would not want them destroying cultural artifacts in another country when they cannot do it here now.
On the fact that it was not us in the second world war, one of the reasons for joining international agreements even when we are not the problem is just to show that there is so much moral suasion in the world, with so many countries signed on, such that those who are not signed on or are creating these offences will feel more pressure.
Related to the rules of engagement, of course, incidental damage would not be a problem. It is a problem only if it is purposeful.
Finally, on sentencing, there could be debates on sentencing related to various laws, that is true, but in this case the sentencing functions and offences were simply transferred domestic laws. We just transferred them internationally. We are already applying those particular sentences and levels of offences in Canada without having any serious challenges to them. It seems to be working well. So to be fair, we would have to use the same offences if someone engaged in that crime in another location.