Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses, Mr. Lutes, Mr. Levasseur and Dr. Kelly, for being with us here today and helping us through this very important draft legislation.
Dr. Kelly, I'll start with you. We're talking about possibly repealing section 43 of the Criminal Code, which is the codification of the common-law defence available for teachers and parents to charges of assault against children.
The Supreme Court of Canada weighed in on this issue 20 years ago. The chief justice at that time said this about section 43, which they defended as being constitutional:
The reality is that without Section 43, Canada's broad assault law would criminalize force falling far short of what we think is corporal punishment, like placing an unwilling child in a chair for a five-minute timeout.
Dr. Kelly, we heard from earlier witnesses, including the sponsor of this bill, about horrific stories of children being hit in the face, being hit with sticks, physical abuse. I would like you to comment. Does section 43 protect that kind of behaviour?