Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, it's an honour and a privilege for me to appear before this committee. I want to thank you for the invitation. I'm pleased to appear alongside my long-time friend, Gord Brown, on the bill, because this is a file we've worked together on for a number of years. The bill, which amends the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, is the result of significant consultation and co-operation with Minister Goodale's office and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Justice committee  I'll give you two quick comments with respect to both the taxi side and the bus driver side. Earlier this year a university student working in the Senate as an intern approached me. She got quite emotional when thanking me for introducing the legislation. She indicated that her dad and mother had immigrated to Canada.

Justice committee  I can't recall specifically, other than that it was a broader public safety issue, and it is focusing specifically on that rather than on what we talked about in Mr. Goodale's bill, for example: a much larger range of offences that would be incorporated in that approach. I can't recall; it's been a while since we had that conversation.

Justice committee  It was never raised during the Senate hearings or during my consultation exercise. We attempted to consult a wide range of people, and that was never raised as a concern. Obviously, you should have been incorporated in that range of people I consulted. No, I'm not sure what the implications are.

Justice committee  The people who are defined as transit workers, I suppose is the question you raised, rather than those who are operating when the vehicle is in motion. I think it goes to the comment that the chief made with respect to comparing this to other occupations. For example, a nurse has been used as a comparison on a number of occasions, and I think it's a valid comparison.

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. I don't think this is going to solve all the problems. I think it's going to be helpful, and all the witnesses that we heard in the Senate and from the public and other stakeholders have indicated that they're very optimistic that this is going to help in terms of consistency in sentencing.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe in being succinct. I want to thank you and the committee members for making this opportunity available to deal with this. I know this is a very busy committee. Bill S-221, an act to amend the Criminal Code (assaults against public transit operators), amends the Criminal Code to require a court to consider it an aggravating circumstance for the purpose of sentencing if the victim of an assault is a public transit operator engaged in the performance of his or her duty.