Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, I’ll try to be brief and, in a sense, follow up on Senator Dalphond’s observations.

In some of the discussion in the Legal Committee, there were some who suggested that this legislation is somewhat performative and that it wasn’t absolutely critical. I support the legislation as much as anything and the message that it conveys. I accept the view that Senator White’s amendment is to try to strengthen the legislation, but I don’t think, to be fair, it would make much difference, even if Senator Dalphond were incorrect. I think he’s right about the concerns of accidentally narrowing the scope of an offence.

My point is slightly different. If you look at the rest of the Criminal Code — and I’m going to name four different provisions: uttering threats, mischief, criminal harassment and intimidation. In my view, each one of these applies exactly and directly to the concern that Senator White would like to see addressed in this provision. My sense of what will be the most critical is not so much a slight tweaking of this provision, but, in circumstances that warrant it, that the police and prosecutors move forward proactively to address the circumstances that, among others, Senator Downe spoke so forcefully about.

I think the best thing to do is to vote against the amendment, confident that the Criminal Code already does the job we need and that this provision will help a little. That’s my view. Thank you.