Justice committee  I think it's important to put Justice Nunn's comments into complete perspective. While he identified areas for some improvement, he also identified that much of the act was working. He was very concerned about the increased incarceration of vulnerable youth. I think the advocat

Justice committee  I think it does. I think public safety is always a very important principle to balance when you're looking at legislation like this.

Justice committee  On the proposal to have better coordination in the system for young people with mental illness and behavioural and developmental disabilities, we see some aspects of it in some provinces and territories, often in a single centre, such as a town. We don't see it at the national le

Justice committee  We think there is more work to be done.

Justice committee  I think there are some issues around the evidentiary requirements in terms of those applications. They've raised some issues. The issue about the evidence to rebut the presumption is a significant issue, and I think there is some level of impracticality about it that would lead

Justice committee  First of all, I've had numerous cases in my work in the court in which there are applications to elevate a young person to serving a balance of their sentence in an adult facility because the youth facility was overcrowded or the adolescent sometimes wanted to go to the adult jai

Justice committee  I think it's a very commendable change. It's one of those instances that we think are very commendable clarifications, because the practice is inconsistent from place to place. It's one of those narrow areas that we think is extremely valuable.

Justice committee  I think it's important to bring the act into conformity with the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada around that issue. I understand there has been some insight taken in that case of R. v. D.B. to comply with that decision. I think there are some challenges around the propo

Justice committee  First of all, I haven't studied their material at length. I understand the position, I understand the findings in the Nunn inquiry, and we've looked at a number cases. I think the Nunn inquiry in particular was very persuasive to say that there are systems to deal with violent of

Justice committee  Certainly I think the three provisions that jump out from Bill C-4—the provision in proposed paragraph 3(1)(b) on “diminished moral blameworthiness”, the pretrial detention provision in proposed subsection 29(2), and the place of detention in proposed subsection 76(2)—are what I

Justice committee  I think, again, it depends on the purpose. It would appear in the draft of Bill C-4 that the publication of names is connected to some types of deterrence, to the notion that if the name is out there, it will deter future offending behaviour. I think it's a very weak link between

Justice committee  There's no evidence to support that. On the adult side, we routinely have names published. When we see a name published in a newspaper, we don't cut it out, clip it, put it on the refrigerator, and say, “Here are the names of the individuals we should be careful of; they have com

Justice committee  I think the challenge we see with the proposed amendments is a very ambiguous position about when the names would be released if this act were to come into force. It would lead to very protracted proceedings. Also, again going back to the position of what the evidence is, is the

Justice committee  I am a judge on leave from the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan, performing the role as representative for children and youth in B.C., so I have a position I'll go back to.

Justice committee  Yes, I sat as a judge under the Young Offenders Act. I worked as a lawyer with the Juvenile Delinquents Act, and then I was there when we brought in the Youth Criminal Justice Act in the Province of Saskatchewan and nationally. I've seen the changes through the different systems.