Public Safety committee  No. I am an ombudsman, which means that I'm independent and I'm neutral. I don't take sides.

Public Safety committee  What we do is respond to complaints. We also identify systemic areas of concern. We make recommendations to the commissioner or to the minister to address those concerns.

Public Safety committee  Staff from my office, including me, meet with inmates primarily, but in the course of our work we meet with corrections staff, from the commissioner all the way down throughout the organization, to gather information, to negotiate redress, and to better inform our decisions.

Public Safety committee  I agree with you entirely that it's not the Correctional Service of Canada's fault that today 26.5% of the federally incarcerated population is of indigenous heritage. Recently my office reported the sad milestone of 25%, and it has gone up since then. There are upstream issues, broad social and structural issues that have to be addressed, but corrections owns an important piece of the solution, I believe.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much, Chairman. I have never heard those words before, that I have as long as I want. That adds to the privilege I'm feeling this afternoon. It has always been a privilege to appear before this committee. I really appreciate the opportunity to meet with you for what will no doubt be my last time in this capacity.

Public Safety committee  As I said, I tend not rank these things in order. I think that doing justice is a pretty complex thing to do. It has many facets and many dimensions. My own experience in working in this field for 30 years is that I've never seen two cases that are exactly the same, with the same set of circumstances.

Public Safety committee  Prison farms or agri-businesses, as they were called, were operated by CORCAN, which is an operating entity of the Correctional Service of Canada. I was surprised that they were closed and at how quickly they were closed and by the skimpy reasons that were offered publicly for their closure.

Public Safety committee  Let me say that the relationship between the Correctional Service of Canada and the Office of the Correctional Investigator is a very good, professional, productive relationship. I have investigative staff in an institution somewhere in this country every day. Cumulatively, my investigators spent over 400 days in institutions across the country last year.

Public Safety committee  There were some significant changes to the provision of chaplaincy support across the country, and I think they're fairly well documented. We're still seeing the effect of these. It varies across different regions of the country. It's operating a little differently even within some institutions within regions.

Public Safety committee  Since April Fool's Day of 2004.

Public Safety committee  My focus is on the mandate that's established in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, part III. When I reflect upon the Criminal Code of Canada and think of the sentencing provisions, section 718 and others, I note that the language in the Criminal Code of Canada continues to call for the least restrictive measure that's necessary to achieve the purpose of the courts.

Public Safety committee  Sure—

Public Safety committee  We're seeing a big increase in the population that speaks neither English nor French as the first language. There is a need for more programming around people with language difficulties. We need ESL, for example. We're also seeing very distinct sub-populations inside federal penitentiaries.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  It's too little, too late. I think we're behind when it comes to radicalization and counter-radicalization programming. Again, this is not just a Correctional Service of Canada issue. There are many aspects to it. It's having people housed properly, having them programmed properly, and having them supervised properly.