Public Safety committee  You know what? This is a little close to the political bone. I'm very happy with all the tools the government is giving us, and drug treatment is one of them, and drug treatment works. But I'd say that it's very different from a conditional sentence.

Public Safety committee  There is no drug treatment program in Canada that will allow someone in with a residential break and enter, the exception being, say, a case-by-case basis for a new home being built, no one's there, it's a residential home development. Then they'll allow people in.

Public Safety committee  For instance, I just had someone not available for drug treatment court. I talked to the defence counsel and said, if he's not suitable for drug treatment court because of the violence, let's look at other options. He went in with a two-year conditional sentence, and he agreed to

Public Safety committee  Personally, I do some publicity. I spread the word to my colleagues. I encourage them to find people with drug addiction or mental health problems and who meet our eligibility criteria. These are the people who make the requests; we do not do the selection. Afterwards, we decide

Public Safety committee  In Ottawa, we talk about people who might be sentenced to less than two years. We do not accept people who are found guilty of violent crimes, domestic violence, impaired driving or residential break-and-enter.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  At the provincial level, in Ottawa, the fact is that this is limiting.

Public Safety committee  Yes. However, our system does not provide for that at the present time in our program in Ottawa. However, if, as the program develops, our treatment supplier decides that it might be beneficial for these people, they could become in-patients and go back to the program later.

Public Safety committee  The crown is responsible for public safety. Ultimately, that's what we see as our job. When I started in mental health court, the direction I got from the crown attorney was, “Here's the drug treatment court; this is the way it works. Don't ever forget that your number one priori

Public Safety committee  The starting point is public safety, and the crown won't screen someone in if we're concerned. This is someone who is in custody now. We're allowing them out of custody to go to treatment, and there's a risk involved. If there's a risk to public safety that involves violence, t

Public Safety committee  It varies. In Calgary, we accept people sentenced from one to three years. However, in Ottawa, our program is only for people with a less than two-year sentence. In general, this is for rather minor offences. Yes, we have recently discovered, in Vancouver and Winnipeg, that the

Public Safety committee  With apologies, I've dealt with a couple of committal issues in which I've had to advise police on what they can do with civil commitments, but I really don't have enough experience to be able to speak to a difference.

Public Safety committee  If you're asking about my experience, I'm now going on to year seven as a prosecutor in various jurisdictions. The follow-through that you have in court and the ability for the crown to come to court twice a week...now in Ottawa, we might be going to once a week. But once or twic

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. The more severe the sentence they're looking at, the more incentive they have.

Public Safety committee  We are accepting people who are charged with drug trafficking. It is the Crown who decides after studying each case individually. It establishes if the traffic was for personal use or for commercial purposes. People charged with commercial drug trafficking are excluded from the p