Mr. Speaker, naturally, we have examined this bill. I thank my hon. colleague for the information he has just provided. However, before coming to this House, I was a criminal defence lawyer for 25 years.
I encourage the member to read the Johnson decision and especially the Supreme Court decision in Mitchell. These two Supreme Court decisions have found—let me quote from one to avoid any ambiguity—that “The principles underlying the... sentencing provisions dictate that a sentence must be appropriate in the circumstances of the individual case”.
This means that a court cannot impose a sentence of indeterminate detention if the offender could receive a lesser sentence, such as the long term offender designation currently provided for in our Criminal Code.
I have a very specific question for the member. Does he not think that the problem is not keeping individuals in detention but rather releasing them too soon, and that the problem lies much more with conditional release?