Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for receiving us. We received a very warm reception. We hope we can bring a west coast perspective to your deliberations. We know that your task isn't easy, and it's very easy to criticize the tough jobs you folks do day in and day ou

Justice committee  That's an excellent question. All we can do is plead with you to have the resolve to see this through. Even if we rounded up all the gang members in Vancouver and put them behind bars, the problem would not be over. We'd still have that underlying problem. I realize it has been

Justice committee  Precedents--

Justice committee  First, I'm not using Italy as a model for anything, except that I'm aware that they have a fairly successful program for dealing with people who are addicted to drugs. It's worth looking at. I'm not passing judgment on whether it's good or bad. With respect to the United States,

Justice committee  Thank you very much. There's no question. We've had discussions with the head of the military, Rear-Admiral Tyrone Pile, who has some major responsibilities, and also with the RCMP, the Olympics folks, and so on. Olympics security has been an issue right from the get-go, and all

Justice committee  It's probably a blessing in disguise because it's causing a spotlight to focus on issues that we've had for years and years and haven't addressed. We're not doing this because of the Olympics, let me be very clear; we're doing this because we have a serious problem with crime in

Justice committee  Could I just clarify something?

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me clarify that it is not the Vancouver Board of Trade's position that we should elect judges. I was simply reporting that the mayor of Surrey suggested that recently. I happen to have some sympathy for her sentiments. It's not that I agree

Justice committee  Thank you for that. Mr. Chairman, there is a disconnect. We've spoken to judges, and I think there's a disconnect between what judges perceive and their rationale for making those decisions. They will go back to the law, and case law, and precedent and so on. Canadians expect

Justice committee  There is no question that's the view of the Vancouver Board of Trade. The mayor of Surrey, who I hope will appear before this committee when it travels west, or before then, recently said she's in favour of electing judges. We're not there yet, but what she's saying I think is wh

Justice committee  I should point out that this is not a new survey. This has been done for dozens of years. It's done in all the OECD countries, so there's some commonality. All the surveys aren't exactly the same because of different legislation and so on, but they do comparative studies, the UN

Justice committee  We're aware of some successful measures in Italy and other parts of the world that we can learn from. In terms of download, we think that with the situation on the west coast—and it has happened in Quebec with gangs and violent offences—emergency funding is required. I think we

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. Mr. Chairman, when I show this graph, that's the issue on chronic offenders, so if I didn't emphasize that sufficiently, I apologize. The main purpose of our mission is to highlight the issue of chronic offenders, and we're asking for escalating sent

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Will there be questions after my presentation or after all of them?

Justice committee  So there won't be questions for me immediately afterwards.