Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, members of the committee, for having invited us. I am speaking today as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Criminal Law of the Barreau du Québec.
We would like to take this important opportunity to reiterate a few messages and concerns that we have been expressing for some years now in relation to the reform of criminal law.
First, the toughening up of criminal laws, through stiffer sentences and the elimination of prosecutors and the courts' judicial discretion, in our opinion, undermines the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.
Second, in order to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system, whose ultimate goal is to do justice and not to punish, two things seem obvious to us.
First of all, we must ensure above all that police and prosecutors working on organized crime investigations receive the financial resources they require. Investigators must have the technical and legal support they need during investigations whereas prosecutors must have the opportunity to set up teams to study the cases and to adequately prepare them in order to see them through to their conclusion.
Secondly, the modernization and simplification of criminal procedure are also desirable. On this issue, we refer you to the Report of the Minister's Roundtable on Criminal Law, which followed a meeting held in Toronto on November 1, 2002. We could also refer you to the deliberations of the symposium on criminal justice organized by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which all the other stakeholders in the justice system participate in.
I would like to refer you to some of the elements in the Report of the Minister's Roundtable on criminal law.
First, this meeting brought together 26 criminal lawyers and academics from across Canada. They were invited by the Department of Justice to discuss criminal law reform in November 2002. While the report on these discussions is not a transcript of the points of discussion upon which there was consensus, it is a first step in a continuing process of public consultation by the Department of Justice to help identify criminal justice priorities.
The document indicates that Criminal Code reform should reflect appropriate social and economic values as well as the enhancement of local resources. The minister at the time supported the idea of the need for a pre-determined set of values to guide the reform.
As for values in criminal law, if we rely on a public policy document published by the Department of Justice in 1982 entitled “The Criminal Law in Canadian Society” there are two major objectives in criminal law: preservation of the peace, crime prevention and protection of the public—the objective of security; and fairness, impartiality and the protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual against the powers of the state and the provision of a fitting response by society to wrongdoing—the goal of justice.
There is an inevitable tension between these two goals. A free and democratic society has the challenge of finding a balance between these two objectives. We would like to emphasize some of the values drawn from the report on the roundtable in Toronto in 2002, to which criminal law should be tied.
The fundamental purpose of criminal law is security—to preserve the peace. The criminal law must provide a fitting response to wrongdoing while respecting the principles of justice and fairness and the rights and liberties of the individual.
The sentencing of an offender must seek his rehabilitation and to repair the harm this offender has done to individuals and to society, to the extent possible.
The punishment for an offence must reflect the gravity of the offence as well as the degree of responsibility of the offender. There must be discretion in the criminal justice system, and I emphasize the word “discretion”, to ensure that the goal of rehabilitation is not lost and that the least restrictive yet still adequate punishment is given.
Similar offences committed in similar circumstances should result in similar punishments.
Offenders may be separated from society when necessary but, reintegration of the offender into society should be the goal.
The criminal justice system must recognize that teenagers are less mature and must keep young people separate from adult accused and offenders, except when allowed by law.
The criminal justice system must treat victims of offences and witnesses to offences with courtesy, compassion and respect. Victims and witnesses should not suffer harm as a result of their involvement in the criminal justice system.
The criminal law must describe in clear and accessible language the actions that society has determined are criminal and penalties for those offences.
I remind you that these are the basic principles...