Justice committee  Yes, that is true, but I can nevertheless assure the committee that we are working in close cooperation with our provincial and territorial colleagues. For instance, I chair a working group that includes all of the directors of victims' assistance services. We examined several a

Justice committee  Yes. I can assure the committee that the federal organizations involved are working with some urgency on preparing the implementation of this bill of rights, including the complaint mechanisms.

Justice committee  The difference lies in the procedure that will be used. Rather than relying on a regulatory procedure, the provinces and territories will be able to use an order in council, which is much easier.

Justice committee  I can tell the committee that, when the bill's implementation was being discussed with the provinces and territories, they were the ones who asked us to put that in, precisely because it would be faster and easier for them.

Justice committee  No. Once again, you are absolutely right, Ms. Boivin. The court is required to hear and consider the statement in its decision. However, it has the discretion to give it less or more weight.

Justice committee  The distinction between the two wordings is that the court must consider the statement in its decision-making. That is the obligation that the provision imposes.

Justice committee  You are absolutely right, Ms. Boivin. The current practice is to plead guilty to an offence in exchange for a submission of sentence.

Justice committee  Ms. Boivin, you are correct to say that the intent of the clause is to specify that when observer status is granted by another act—take the conditional release act, for example—that status or regime is in no way affected by this clause.

Justice committee  I agree with you, Ms. Boivin. There might be some inconsistency if this clause was placed following clause 17. It might create confusion in the courts. We might wonder whether restorative justice should be used only when dealing with restitution or if it is more general. Indeed,

Justice committee  I completely agree with this being a matter of the burden. I think that the information from the investigation is covered in another amendment we will discuss later.

Justice committee  Thank you. As you say, the right would be available on request. So the right would clearly consist in providing that information. The information would not be provided on the victim's request, but it would be an obligation of the Crown, police officers and other stakeholders to

Justice committee  Yes, that's the advice from the drafting section.

Justice committee  I can simply indicate to the committee that the French and English drafters reviewed the text, as did their respective editors, and they provided us assurances that those two meanings were consistent.

Status of Women committee  We don't tend to use that language, as my colleague has said. We try to adopt language that is as inclusive as possible when we are approaching communities or making funding available to communities.

Status of Women committee  That's not a problem at all.