Justice committee  Hello. The Association québécoise des avocats et avocates de la défense is a not-for-profit association composed of 600 criminal defence lawyers practising throughout all regions of Quebec. Our members include private practice lawyers as well as those working for the Commission

Justice committee  Obviously the judicial discretion will be now exercised by crown attorneys, and the process for appointing both of these.... We in the AQAAD believe that crown attorneys should have some discretion, but I don't believe the judicial discretion should be put into the hands of the p

Justice committee  No. I said that 90% of charges lead to a plea or plea bargaining that closes the case. So only 10% of charges go to trial. And a lot of cases get settled after the pre-trial, which people are also trying to chip away at these days. That's another factor. If you consider the amen

Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may, I obviously represent the defence attorneys' association in Quebec. I cannot speak on behalf of the judges, but I can say from work and the information that I've gathered that judges feel they can do their job in Canada today. They don't need specific guid

Justice committee  I wanted to answer the first question, because you put it to all the witnesses. If there is a repeat offender and there are serious crimes being committed, the Criminal Code already has provisions regarding dangerous and long-term offenders. So I believe that if the Crown has re

Justice committee  Well, you've got my point exactly. I believe this law is not necessary. Judges are giving just sentences, and the appeal process is there for anybody who wants to take it up. If the Crown believes the sentence is not harsh enough, they will appeal, and they do. I don't believe th

Justice committee  If I may, on the same question, I can refer the committee to the submissions of the Quebec Bar Association. The Quebec Bar made submissions on Bill C-9 about restricting jail time to be served within the community. I believe the legislative committee of the Quebec Bar represents

Justice committee  We read all the provisions very attentively before coming here, but in fact—and we mentioned this during our presentations—that there will be more instances of preventive detention with this kind of project. This is absolutely certain. The Supreme Court made a decision, in the

Justice committee  You're asking us precisely if we should get rid of the maximum, and I believe Mr. Brodeur answered that question when he was making his representations, in that the average sentence in Canada is nowhere near the maximum. So I don't believe this is an issue. And in 15 years of p

Justice committee  There is just one thing that can be said. First of all, when there are serious offences, as I've already mentioned, there are dispositions in the code for offenders to be controlled, or for long-term offenders. So if that's the issue, it's already there. You say that the judge

Justice committee  I am before the senate committee on another bill at five o'clock.

Justice committee  Thank you very much for the accommodation. I'm sorry, but obviously I thought I was starting at 3:30. To begin with, the Association québécoise des avocats et avocates de la défense would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to talk to you about our concerns regardin

Justice committee  It is odd that you would ask me about that section, because I was theamicus curiae to the Supreme Court in R. v. Lavigne, in which the Court considered precisely the possibility of seizing property obtained by crime. In fact it is a possibility, but a civil action and class actio

Justice committee  As I understand it, the Court of Appeal answered that question recently in the case of Mr. Lacroix. He had been sentenced to five years, calculated consecutively. The Court of Appeal refused because he would certainly be entitled to a jury trial. The Charter provides that any off

Justice committee  It was reduced, but in the criminal case, he was sentenced to prison for 13 years. So it was not a very big reduction, after the sentence to five years in prison! Without going into the separate statutes, if someone is liable to imprisonment for five years or more, they are entit