Justice committee  I would say it's not a good idea to legislate on the basis of one horrible example that with a little more discretion would have avoided the situation. I don't know where the one-hour thing comes from. The legislation that's proposed suggests a reasonable delay. Reasonable delay

Justice committee  If I may, I think you're correct. We were referring to the previous amendment and the comments we have made, but you are correct. This legislation has dealt with that concern.

Justice committee  Yes, that aspect does.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Yes, you're correct.

Justice committee  The intent was certainly not to mislead, but simply to reiterate the fact that we had commented in the past. And our comment at this stage of the legislation obviously is not on that point, but you're right to point that out.

Justice committee  No.

Justice committee  Yes and no. I'll explain. The difficulty we have with this is the following. I just want to take this opportunity to say that I find that what happened to Mr. Chen is a very unfortunate and terrible thing. I don't think he should have ever been charged. But that's another issue.

Justice committee  The concern we have here is that there is a distinction to be made when an arrest occurs as the act is being committed and when an arrest occurs a reasonable time later on, when citizens are involved.

Justice committee  Yes, that's our distinction.

Justice committee  Prosecutors are actually under a lot of pressure to find alternatives when they are faced with impossible situations, which does happen. With the increase in minimum penalties, this bill is going to make the situation more and more difficult. Under this system, we will be less an

Justice committee  I'm sorry.

Justice committee  As Mr. Trahan was saying in terms of the importance of treating delinquents on an individual basis, we have some serious concerns with this bill. The number of people in prison is expected to go up. I have heard it said that people coming back through the system will eventually e

Justice committee  Yes. I have to say that is something we do support, and I think it's something that should be looked at and encouraged. All procedures that would favour the individuals who are involved in substance abuse moving away from that, and the criminal justice system being able to adap

Justice committee  I can only agree with what our colleague has said. In Quebec those prosecutions are handled by provincial crown attorneys, so they are the ones who carry the bulk of the workload. And obviously anything that complicates matters will complicate their task and burden the system mor