Justice committee  But, particularly when you have a situation where you have somebody who has the potential for parole—

Justice committee  Yes, assuming that they have a realistic prospect of getting it in their lifetime. I would certainly expect that there would be a far greater incentive to seek programming, get help, and get treatment if you have a prospect of getting parole, even if it is 25 years out. I can t

Justice committee  I think that's right. Normally you would charge somebody with first-degree murder and everything else that goes along with it is less—

Justice committee  Subsection 231(5) of the Criminal Code provides that certain forms of what would otherwise be second-degree murder are first-degree murder when—I'm just looking at the language here—the death is caused “while committing or attempting to commit” certain designated offences, which

Justice committee  They were not, until now.

Justice committee  It's a good question. I didn't look at that specifically. I know there's a different provision in section 745.1 that deals with the sentencing of young offenders. The offence here would be covered as first-degree murder. In addition to having this added punishment, I would imagin

Justice committee  To start, let me thank you, as always, for inviting the Criminal Lawyers' Association to speak to you about this bill. Defence lawyers rarely face the kinds of cases that this bill relates to, and one rarely relishes representing people charged with these kinds of crimes. It's o