Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech, and I think that his concerns are worth noting.
This bill is certainly worthy of being debated in committee after the vote at second reading. I agree with my colleague that we must hear from experts on minimum sentences, since the courts have spoken out against them on a number of occasions. What happens is that judges are hesitant to impose minimum sentences and laws are even overturned, which is very costly.
I even asked the Minister of Justice yesterday how much it cost the federal government to defend its flawed bills with minimum sentences. Unfortunately he did not seem able to answer the question.
Does my colleague think that the Department of Justice is spending too much to defend bills that judges will often challenge? Is it worth going to the Supreme Court to defend minimum sentences—