Mr. Speaker, I enjoy working with the hon. for Windsor—Tecumseh on the justice committee.
He talked about his concern regarding minimum mandatory sentences, saying that they might actually have the opposite effect of what the government contemplated. The example he cited was that they might actually preclude the judges from giving higher sentences than what is in the minimum mandatory.
I am perplexed by that and I want to challenge him. The current Criminal Code has maximum penalties for every offence and the judges do not use as the benchmark. They tailor a sentence in the appropriate range.
Why is he fearful that the minimum mandatory might become a ceiling rather than a floor?