Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. minister for her speech. Certainly, as someone who has had a long career in law enforcement, she has a very valuable perspective to offer.
My questions throughout the morning have been on the subject of mandatory minimum sentences. As someone who has worked so closely on these horrible crimes, she undoubtedly shares the goal of all of us here that we should adopt measures that work and that result in fewer victims.
I would like to cite three studies that have commented on mandatory minimums. The Department of Justice, in 1990, found:
The evidence shows that long periods served in prison increase the chance that the offender will offend again.
In 1990, researched commissioned by the Solicitor General concluded the following:
To argue for expanding the use of imprisonment in order to deter criminal behaviour is without empirical support.
A Massachusetts study from 2004 called mandatory minimums:
…a recipe for recidivism rather than a recipe for effective risk reduction.
My question for the minister is whether she is aware of a single contradictory study.