Mr. Speaker, it is important, when it comes to our charter rights, that we look at not only statements of any government, present, future or past, but also at what that government is or was proposing to do to assess the validity against the rules that constrain the powers of government outlined in our Constitution and, indeed, in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I will give some comfort to my colleague opposite by pointing out that the provisions he seems concerned with do not change the behaviour that is criminalized, but put more serious penalties in place, recognizing that a crime should be treated more seriously when someone commits a crime against a victim on the basis of their identity. I, for one, think it would be appropriate for Canada's criminal laws to reflect a higher degree of moral culpability when a Jewish person is targeted by virtue of their being Jewish, when a Muslim person is targeted on the basis of their being Muslim or when a person of colour is targeted on the basis of the colour of their skin.
We have an opportunity to move forward in a fashion that respects our Constitution, as we know that these crimes have been subjected to constitutional scrutiny in courts and have been previously upheld.