Madam Speaker, let us be clear: we are talking about crimes and murders punishable by life in prison. As my colleague rightly said, often the murder victim is dead and it is the family that continues to suffer.
When a judge declares a person guilty of murder and sentences him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, justice has been served to the victim. However, in 15 years of detention, an inmate may display exemplary behaviour. I gave the example of Michel Dunn. In prison, his behaviour was exemplary. He served 15 years in prison. The judge delivered the sentence and punished him for the crime. We do not want to minimize the impact of the crime and say that it was just a murder and nothing serious. We are sensitive to that and that is the reason for life sentences.
The faint hope clause allows an inmate to be released after 15 years of good behaviour. The best evidence that the public is not being punished as well, is that the murderer's lawyer pleads before a judge, who upholds the law, and before a jury of 12 people. This does not happen before an administrative tribunal like the parole board or before a judge alone. The Criminal Code provides that 12 citizens will decide on the release of an individual after 15 years.
In a trial by jury structure, everyday people—just regular folks—are randomly selected from the voters list to make the decision about parole after 15 years. These 12 people are part of the general public.
The two groups my colleague is concerned about are very well served. The inmates serve 15 years instead of 20 or 25 years. While we are at it, perhaps we should add some corporal punishment. A few lashes would not hurt. Let us be serious; they have gone too far.