Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member. They tried this in the United States and it does not produce these results.
The study was on Commonwealth countries. In all the Commonwealth countries, most judges do not like minimum sentences, basically for the reasons that I presented earlier. It forces them to commit injustices. I am not aware of a single study—and the department has not cited any—that demonstrates that minimum sentences produced results. Generally, to advance a science, you take a sample and run experiments to see if they can be given general application. You do not do the opposite to find out whether your theory can be applied generally, that is apply it generally and the experiment will show whether or not you have to decrease the sentence. Basically, this is what the hon. member opposite is proposing.