Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today.
The first petition calls upon this place to legislate the abuse of a pregnant woman and/or the infliction of harm on a preborn child as aggravating circumstances for sentencing purposes in the Criminal Code. At the stage of sentencing, after someone has been found guilty, they want aggravating circumstances to be required.
Their rationale is that it is a well-established fact to all of us, and we know this, that the risk of violence against women increases when they are pregnant. Currently, the injury or death of preborn children as victims of crime are not considered aggravating circumstances for sentencing purposes in our Criminal Code, which means they may or may not be considered, and often they are not. Canada has no abortion law and the petitioners indicate that this legal void is so extreme that we are not even in a place in this House to recognize preborn children as victims of violent crimes.
Finally, justice requires that an attacker who abuses a pregnant woman and/or her preborn child should be sentenced accordingly. The sentence should match the crime.