Evidence of meeting #47 for Justice and Human Rights in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was child.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mike Wallace
Thank you.
Our last questioner is Monsieur Lauzon from the Conservative Party.
October 21st, 2014 / 5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Thank you to our guests for their very, very interesting comments.
I'm going to address my questions to Mr. Murie.
First of all, Mr. Murie, I want to say off the top that I so much appreciate and respect the work your organization does. As you know, we have a colleague who has been a victim of an impaired driver for probably 20 to 25 years now. I've had discussions with her, and it's just terrible.
Before I ask you a couple of questions, I want to confirm some figures. I think you said in your opening comments that an average of four people per day die because of impaired drivers.
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
That's correct.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
I just did the math, and that works out to 1,460 people per year who die because of impaired drivers.
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
That's a conservative number. We miss a lot of the people—
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
It involves how many victims? We have those families, extended families. It's incredible.
Then you also mention, I think, that 175 people per day are injured from impaired—
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
That works out to 63,875 per year. Again, there are all the families, all the associated.... This is a real problem, and that's why I'm so, so grateful, and please keep up the good work. It's phenomenal.
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Thank you.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
I understand that you provided some testimony through the extensive consultation that our government did, and we appreciate that, in order to develop the victims bill of rights. I wonder if you could tell us what you would like to see in the victims bill of rights. What would make your day?
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
I remember very profoundly one of the things that the minister said as he went across the country. As many of my colleagues said, I can give you cases where people go to court 28 to 30 times over a period of two to three years. To put anything in this bill that would delay the current system of justice would be a major mistake. This is a good step in the right direction. We have lots of work to do to make the criminal justice system much more efficient, and then I think we can talk about other things at that time.
The minister was really clear to our organization that this would move victims rights in the right direction, but it wouldn't delay the criminal justice system. He was very fair with us right there, and that same message as he went from coast to coast consulting was delivered to us. We had reasonable expectations. We were able to give things that we thought would move along.
We really believe, despite those figures that you stated, that impaired driving is the leading criminal cause of death in this country, that our victims are treated as second-class; they're not treated the same way as murder victims, homicide victims, sexual assault victims, etc. within the system. Just in the compensation piece that the provinces do, every victim of impaired driving is exempt from any criminal justice compensation. It's wrong; it's fundamentally flawed. We talk about, yes, let's let the provinces do the job, but our hope is also that they take this as an opportunity to be fair to all victims.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
A police officer told me that he thought a car driven by an impaired driver was actually a weapon. Whether I kill you with a gun or I kill you with my car while impaired, it's still murder.
5:30 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Yes, manslaughter, vehicular homicide, it's the same thing.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Whatever.
Do you think that the victims bill of rights will make offenders more financially accountable?
5:30 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Yes, I think so. I think it also goes back to what some of my colleagues said. I think the provincial system has to work with victims to create, through court orders and various other mechanisms, the ability to get that money. We fail in that right now. The provincial system does a terrible job.
Victims feel that they get this restitution order and then they have zero chance of collecting it.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mike Wallace
Thank you for those questions and answers.
I want to thank the panel for joining us today. You did a fabulous job of kicking off our discussion.
We'll be talking about this bill for the next three weeks, and then there will be a break week on the Hill, and then we'll likely be doing clause-by-clause study the week after that, just in case you want to follow along.
Thank you again for coming.
With that, we'll adjourn until Thursday.