Justice committee  I'll be careful on this one. The Department of Justice has to make an assessment, and the Attorney General of Canada, as you know very well, in essence has to put his stamp of approval that a bill before the House is consistent with the charter. For reasons of solicitor-client privilege, we don't talk about what our constitutional assessment of the bill is.

Justice committee  As I said before, there's more than one purpose, but I'd say that the number one purpose is denunciation of the offence. Perhaps I can best answer your question by giving you the example I wanted to give, if that's all right, and it's from the prosecutor's perspective. For example, an offender committed multiple firearms offences related to the importation of illegal firearms—23 illegal handguns that could cause an enormous amount of harm—from the U.S. into Canada.

Justice committee  I agree. We have to have both prevention and the matters that we're discussing in this bill here. Yes. Absolutely. We have to look at everything. It's like the debate around our health care system. Is it just prevention or just treatment? It's everything. We need to prevent, but we also need to address, we need to denounce, and we need to incapacitate.

Justice committee  If you're asking me whether or not what happened under Attorney General Howard Hampton, where thousands and thousands of charges were thrown out at once, is going to happen again in Ontario in the foreseeable future, the answer is absolutely not. If the question is whether it's possible that of the 500,000 charges that are before the courts every year, there may be one that comes up that is subject to an Askov motion for delay, that may be the case.

Justice committee  Okay, I'm ready.

Justice committee  On legal aid, it used to be the case that legal aid funding was 50-50, federal-provincial. We have moved far away from that, and legal aid funding has become about 75% provincial, and in some cases 80% provincial and 20% federal. This was one of the three priorities that all provincial and territorial justice ministers conveyed to the federal government at the meeting last fall.

Justice committee  Am I up, Mr. Chair?

Justice committee  I know how it works. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Justice committee  Thank you, Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to address the committee. I'm sure the justice committee is very aware of the role the provincial Attorney General and his or her agents play in our criminal justice system. But just as confirmation, I guess, for those who torture themselves by reading Hansard for a committee, the provincial Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting the Criminal Code.