Justice committee  To my understanding, Paul Bernardo, I think, has been given the dangerous offender designation, but it is very rarely used. I don't know of any violent criminal other than Paul Bernardo who has been designated as a dangerous offender. I believe the courts, the crown prosecutor, the judges feel that once they are sentenced to life imprisonment, what's the point of a dangerous offender clause?

Justice committee  Good afternoon, members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, as well as Mr. Mayes and Susan Ashley. I wish to thank the committee for inviting our organization, Victims of Violence, to present our views on Bill C-587, an act to amend the Criminal Code (increasing parole ineligibility).

Justice committee  Yes, I have.

Justice committee  There are multiple layers of jurisdiction as well as.... There's RCMP in some jurisdictions. There's municipal police in some jurisdictions, and in our particular set of circumstances, that is what happened. Throughout the years—it's been a long time—I've always been under the assumption that there is a concerted effort between police departments, those being RCMP and municipal and/or city police, to try their best to share information.

Justice committee  It's as difficult as the victim's situation. It really is. It takes the effort. It takes advocating, and it takes certain people who can do the advocating. It's the same with police; some police are stronger than others.

Justice committee  Actually, as well as Mr. Gilhooly, I could probably speak from a personal level on the $100,000 payment. Hindsight is always great, but as victims at that particular time, had the crown and the attorney general approached the families—they knew the families were all getting together—rather than treating us in the manner that they did, and had they taken the time to explain to us that a number of bodies of other children had not been found....

Justice committee  It won't take long. She asked me if I could share this with you. She said: After two years, the crown, after seeing us in court for so long— Their case took three years, and there were five offenders. —decided to call us in one day to explain a plea bargain that had to take place.

Justice committee  By all means, absolutely. I'll give you an example. When we went through the section 745 hearing a number of years ago—and it's a little bit different in relation to a victim impact statement—I took Daryn's picture with me. It was an eight by ten; it was in a frame; it was in the court.

Justice committee  Good afternoon, members of the standing committee. Thank you for inviting our organization, Victims of Violence, to present on Bill C-32, an act to enact the Canadian victims bill of rights and to amend certain acts. Victims of Violence was incorporated as a national organization on November 27, 1984, which is 30 years ago.

Justice committee  I don't think so. I don't think it should be up to the crown attorneys or the judges to make an assessment on how this money is going to be spent. I think that is going beyond their discretion. There is a large portion of the funds going to victim services today. That's why I think there has to be a mandatory piece of legislation in the Criminal Code that in fact tells them that this is what they have to do.

Justice committee  Oh, I'm sorry.

Justice committee  There is definitely a huge gap and has been for years. Historically, ever since I've been around, the provinces have been responsive to victims of domestic violence, mainly women, by providing funding for shelters; child victims of sexual abuse, historical child victims of sexual abuse, which came to light in 1993, I believe; and to provide services for female sexual assault victims, but not males.

Justice committee  In my presentation, I think I made the suggestion, but I don't know how far that would go. It is very difficult, this being a federal piece of legislation, to have all provinces on side in relation to the possibility of providing an annual report on where this money is going. I believe one of the witnesses mentioned that $2 million from this fund that is set up for victims is going to the Rick Hansen fund, which has nothing to do with crime victims.

Justice committee  By all means, I do. I'd like to make one comment on the questions given to my colleague, Ms. Pate, and her response. She talked about the incarcerated individuals, a lot of whom have been victims of crime themselves. She talked about prevention. My response is, isn’t this what this bill is trying to do?

Justice committee  No, we don't. We're just on the national level.