Senator Simons: Do I still have time?

Senator Simons: Yes, if you like.

Senator Simons: Senator Batters, you’re a lawyer, and I am not; I’ve been an observer in courtrooms for a long time.

In terms of sexual assault, it’s my understanding — and please correct me if I am wrong, because I don’t have your legal background — that a sexual assault can be anything from a violent, heinous rape to someone exposing themselves in the park. I think we need to understand that sexual assault covers a whole spectrum of the human condition and of human sin. It’s really important that we not impose a cookie-cutter solution, because the sexual assault committed by a rapist who jumps out at you in the parking lot and assaults you viciously is quite different, I think, from the kind of sexual assault when a guy who feels you up in the bar. I don’t care to be felt up in the bar. Actually, it has been a long time since it happened. Sorry — I went for low-hanging fruit. That was not a tasteful joke, and I apologize.

My point is there is a wide variety of offences that can be deemed sexual assault.

For kidnapping, there is a difference between a kidnapping for ransom and for custodial interference, which is often charged as kidnapping. Again, I’m not excusing a parent who abducts a child in violation of a custody order, but, again, that is a different thing from an armed ransom attempt.

These are all very difficult questions, and I, in no way, want to minimize the dangers that criminals pose in our society. I, in no way, want to minimize the dangers in domestic situations where people are often trapped by economic and social circumstances. And when justice finally steps in, they need the courts to be there to protect them. I just feel that this particular amendment casts too wide a net.

Senator Simons: I don’t know the source of that figure. If it’s true, it curls my hair, and I’ve got curly hair.

I agree with you. I don’t think that men who have been a violent menace to their spouses should just be — as I said, I used the phrase “catch and release” before. It’s very important, especially when a man is showing the signals that his behaviour could escalate, that we deal with that properly. I just don’t think this particular amendment gets to the heart of what you are trying to do, and I absolutely agree with what you’re trying to do.

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