Yes, Mr. Chairman.
The purpose of this amendment again relates to the rights within the correction system and seeks to maintain the words that are currently there with regard to “the least restrictive environment”. This is not just an operational principle as to how people should be conducting themselves within the penitentiary system. It is a constitutional principle so as to frame the principle and operative guidelines around the notion of the least restrictive measures.
That is yet again, Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment. It is also based on the witness testimony that we've received. Mr. Harris referenced in particular the witness testimony of Michael Jackson, who has studied this for some 30 years now.
The whole point here is not to alter a situation where we have a constitutional principle that comports with all that we affirm with respect to the Charter of Rights and the retention of those rights within the penitentiary system.
I made that point before, Mr. Chairman. I need not belabour it. That is the purpose of the amendment: to reaffirm both the constitutional and operative principle of least restrictive measures.