Rob Anders ... Wants To Resurrect What?

Apparently, Rob Anders thinks that we need to resurrect the old "Rape" laws.

He wants anyone convicted of rape to serve a mandatory minimum of eight years in prison for a first offence and 10 years for each subsequent conviction. 

“I ideally would have liked to have seen rapists get 20-years mandatory minimum but because of what we anticipate in constitutional challenges, we decided to go with eight and 10 because it was well within inside the penalties for manslaughter.”

As usual for Rob Anders, he seems to be quite unaware of why the old Rape laws were replaced with "Sexual Assault".  First of all, Rape has a fairly narrow definition.  Second, as we have come to understand, there are entire classes of sexual assault which are just as damaging to their victims as forced sexual intercourse.  The much broader Sexual Assault laws actually encompass these laws, and because of the language of them, they encompass both male and female offenders, where a Rape law is largely solely enforceable with respect to male offenders.

Mr. Anders claims that the sentences being handed out are "too lenient", yet he fails to acknowledge that the available sentences for sexual assault can run as high as 10 to 14 years.  How often sentences that long are handed out, I cannot say.  I would imagine that the longest sentences are reserved for the worst offenders.  He is also ignoring the availability of long term and dangerous offender designations.

While we haven't seen Anders' legislation yet, I fully expect that it will be written in a manner which virtually guarantees that it will collapse the minute it is challenged under the terms of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.