Thank you so much.
Thank you to all the witnesses. This is very interesting.
I first have a few comments for our colleague Rodney Snow.
I totally agree with you. In a sense, it's kind of disturbing, because I did think that we would advance with this. It's rare in this committee that we have unanimous consent for something, so it was pretty uplifting to see that we would advance in the sense of what have been some recommendations, either from the Canadian Bar Association or promises from two justice ministers. I feel as though we're back to square one, if not a bit further back, but anyway....
I appreciate tremendously the scientific experts, because this is not my field of expertise. I deal with law. I take to heart your last comment that we shouldn't sacrifice the good to try to strive.... It's always better to go for the best, but at the same time, if striving for the best means that we're totally frozen and not acting, there's a big problem. I appreciate my colleague Sean Casey's bill, but since he already had his turn, we will not be debating his bill either. I don't exactly know how we'll be able to move this faster in this legislature, but anyway, we'll do our part.
I'm not a medical specialist, obviously. I'm a lawyer, with all that that means, which sometimes is nothing.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Ms. Françoise Boivin: I listened very hard to the explanations.
I loved your passion, Dr. Cook. I love people who are passionate. I'm passionate about law. You're passionate about mental disorders. I seem to understand that there are so many things that science realizes and learns about every day. I keep hearing the definition of FASD, and I know there are people who say that it doesn't fit the criteria of section 16 of the Criminal Code, but section 16 of the Criminal Code talks about somebody not being responsible because of “a mental disorder”.
I would like the three scientific people who are here today to enlighten us. Why would it not be a possibility that somebody is not guilty because of FASD? Is it possible that there might be cases? I seem to understand from the testimony of the three of you that not everybody is the same, that FASD doesn't have the same impact on everybody. We just heard from Mr. Sapers, l'enquêteur correctionnel, who seemed to say that it's not advancing anywhere, that nobody seems to be even talking about it in courts so our jails are full of people with it.
What can we do? Why isn't it subject to section 16 of the Criminal Code?