Mr. Speaker, people have honed in on various offences that are covered by Bill C-9. Some of the ones which members opposite have referred to as being less serious are break and enter with intent to commit indictable offence and being unlawfully in a dwelling house. Those two provisions, at the discretion at the prosecutor, can be pursued by way of summary conviction or by way of indictment. If a prosecutor, in his or her discretion, were to decide to pursue them by way of summary conviction, a conditional sentence would still be available.
I take issue with the comment that theft over $5,000 and possession of stolen property over $5,000 are less serious. I think Canadians sent a pretty clear message that property crimes are crimes against people. There are victims to property crimes, not only the ones the government is targeting that deal with physical injury to a person, such as torture, sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, hostage taking, all these heinous crimes are covered by Bill C-9.
Is it not necessary to, not only on crimes that involve physically injuring another member of society but also on serious property crimes, send a message that Canadians no longer want to be victims of these crimes and that as a government we take them seriously, that we also take the principle of denunciation and deterrence seriously and that, in many cases, conditional sentences would be inappropriate even for serious property crimes?