Justice committee  I do.

Justice committee  In terms of the production, I don't think so; nothing comes to mind. In terms of the impact on organized crime, I don't think it has an impact either.

Justice committee  Hopefully it will have a positive effect in the sense that it will act as a deterrent, but in terms of the relationship between this offence and other offences, I don't think there is any.

Justice committee  Mr. Ménard pointed out a possibility, which is that if a conditional sentence applies to offences that are 10 years, then perhaps that would have an impact on that, but otherwise not. As I indicated earlier, generally our sentences are a maximum of round numbers, and it's usually

Justice committee  No.

Justice committee  The amendment, the effect of which is to bring the penalty in the bill to ten years exactly, would make the penalty similar to those found elsewhere in the Criminal Code or other federal legislation. If passed, the penalty of ten years less a day would be the only one of its kind

Justice committee  No. From what I have seen, the amendment keeps the offence as a major one, but establishes a penalty of 10 years rather than 10 years less a day.

Justice committee  Generally, in the code, or in other legislation, including the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the penalty is a fixed period, a round number, such as 5, 7,10 or 14 years, for example.

Justice committee  The practice of “less a day” itself is not unusual. In fact, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has an offence of five years less a day. It's an indictable offence; it's five years less a day. What is unusual—in fact, it would be precedent-setting—is a ten-year less a day t

Justice committee  As I understand it, the motion is put forward by the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice, and certainly the idea was discussed in the Department of Justice.

Justice committee  Yes. Take the example of a penalty of five years less a day. There is an impact on the access to a trial by jury.

Justice committee  But, to my knowledge, with a penalty of 10 years less a day, no impact of that kind is intended. Perhaps the author of the bill had some reason to stipulate ten years less a day. But I have not found one myself.

Justice committee  No, I don't.

Justice committee  Yes, that's correct.

Justice committee  With this amendment, that would happen. That's correct.