Public Safety Committee on March 8th, 2012

[Det James Clover]

Well, I can tell the committee that I've worn a bracelet for a month. It wasn’t a piece of me.

It becomes a piece of you after a month. You're restricted. You have nine minutes every day that you're lawfully expected to find a plug and to plug it in. But it's that balance between the protection and the sustained protection of the community and the liberties of movement of an offender in the community. That's a deprivation, as far as I'm concerned.

We need to use these technologies where it's appropriate, acknowledging that a person must wear a device they probably don't want to wear and must charge the device—they don't have a choice, they have to, in order to satisfy this condition—and when you make someone do those two things, that's a deprivation.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you.

I'll pass it on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Côté.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Clover, about that, I am fascinated that you tested the device on yourself. That brings to mind what a number of critics have said: families are subject to the same sentence as the person wearing the bracelet.

Could you elaborate on the repercussions for the family of the offender wearing the device?

[Det James Clover]

My personal experience from wearing the device is…. I went to work; I was in a uniform or in a suit. The device didn't out me in the community. I wasn't ostracized because I had a black box. The use of GPS EM is in the media, with known celebrities we see in the news.

I think we need to caution that you're absolutely right. The conditions and practices to supervise, let's say, a sexual offender will have an impact on the family, but so will curfews, so will reporting, so will abstains.

There is always going to be an impact on the family. I think that's an important part of the supervision and, more importantly, the integration of the offender. How are we complementing this offender's return? The family is a piece of that puzzle, absolutely.

I really have no more comments on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Côté.

We want to thank both of you from Edmonton today for joining us. I can tell you that I think you have been very helpful. The questions and the answers and your presentation have given us information on this new technology, and certainly some of the concerns that you may have about it.

We want to thank you. We'll probably all be waiting to hear from Mr. Rathgeber after he has had a chance to go in and maybe see what the bracelet looks like. Maybe put it on him—I know our whip here in our party would be happy to know where Mr. Rathgeber is as well.

Thank you very much for appearing before our committee.

We are going to suspend for a moment, and then we are going to move into committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]