Mr. Speaker, consecutive sentences are an important part of the bill.
I will give an example. An RCMP car stops a car the officer suspects is operated by an impaired driver. The driver exits the vehicle and assaults the police officer. The driver is convicted of impaired driving.
Under the existing section 718.02 of the Criminal Code, it requires that a court that imposes a sentence for assault on a police officer to:
...give primary consideration to the objectives of denunciation and deterrence of the conduct that forms the basis of the offence.
Under the proposed amendments, the court would be required to order that the sentence imposed for the assault of the RCMP be served consecutively to any term of imprisonment imposed for the impaired driving.
The same thing could be said for a trained police dog involved. If, for example, the perpetrator stabs a police dog, the perpetrator would be charged with injuring the police dog and the sentence would be served consecutively to the sentence for the break and enter, or whatever the scenario was.