Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments by the parliamentary secretary on this very important subject. All of us are affected by this in our communities and we all have had our constituents address this subject.
My first question for the parliamentary secretary relates to the issue of drugs. His leader has repeatedly mentioned on the record his aversion toward safe injection sites, and he also has mentioned looking at people who have substance abuse issues as committing a criminal offence rather than having a medical problem. Does his party believe that people who have substance abuse problems have a judicial problem rather than a medical problem? As for individuals who are caught with possession of soft drugs like marijuana, does the government want to pursue that through the courts as a non-indictable offence?
My second question relates to the issue of conditional sentencing. Does my colleague believe that crown prosecutors will pursue more non-indictable offences, taking an offence to a non-indictable stage and trying to pursue a summary conviction as opposed to continuing with an indictable offence if the judge feels obligated to force them to engage in a penalty that may not be warranted under the circumstances?