Mr. Speaker I thank my colleague for his question.
Certainly, we have a responsibility to uphold the rule of law in our society, even though both the law and the society may be imperfect.
We cannot take all the people who commit serious, terrible crimes and send them to Mars for 150 years. That will not work.
Two of my colleagues opposite rose to ask, with indignation in their voices, why the NDP was against minimum sentences for child abusers. If my colleagues on the other side of the House could demonstrate, with facts from criminologists, sociologists and the like, that every time the minimum sentence is raised by 12 months, the number of victims decreases by 20%, I would be standing on my desk—not just on my chair—demanding that it be increased by seven years. At seven times 20% there would be no more victims and I would be very happy.
The problem is that things do not work that way, in a black and white fantasy world. More intelligence is required.