Justice committee  One of the justifications for mandatory minimum penalties is the incapacitation principle, or denunciation. We don't have evidence that shows that MMPs have a deterrent effect, but they clearly have an incapacitation effect, or a denunciation effect by society. Yes, if a person

Justice committee  I'm not sure if there have been formal studies, but I know the sentencing circles are not used as much as they were in the past. Of course in some places it's not appropriate. It doesn't make sense in downtown Toronto. It only makes sense where there is a well-known community. I

Justice committee  They are a provincial responsibility. In terms of management of the program, it's provincial. There are a lot of people who are saying some of the successes in the youth criminal justice system, such as restorative justice diversion, should be used more regularly with respect to

Justice committee  I'd have to double-check the statistics and get back to you on whether they're exactly the same. Alyson, do you have that?

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, with your schedule of six minutes and three minutes and six minutes, I feel like I'm in the penalty box. I'm not sure when I'm on the ice and when I'm in the penalty box.

Justice committee  We're working with the provinces. As you know, the administration of justice and legal aid is a provincial responsibility. We are working with the provinces to undertake best practices. We actually undertook a study a couple of years ago on innovations in legal aid to see what k

Justice committee  One of the funding programs the department has is the aboriginal court work program. It's made up of about 180 court workers who are spread out across the country. Some of them are co-funded through the provinces. These individuals are the liaisons between the individual and the

Justice committee  Alyson, do we have research into that yet?

Justice committee  I'm going to let Alyson take this.

Justice committee  The department is focusing right now, along with some of the provinces and territories, on administration of justice offences. The question is whether there could be alternative measures, as opposed to laying a criminal charge, for an administration of justice offence. For examp

Justice committee  Yes. The federal government works together with the provinces in a number of forums: at the ministerial level, at the deputy minister level, and also at the officials' level. Federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of justice have approved some recommendations coming from

Justice committee  I think that most of the policing is actually under provincial control. Quebec and Ontario have provincial police forces. Municipal police forces are, again, under provincial control or municipal control. The RCMP really is only contracting, and in a sense, is contracting in the

Justice committee  We're just starting to undertake research in the area of the impact of the Gladue reports. There is variation across the country. Even within provinces, there's variation. In certain parts of Ontario, the Gladue reports are quite regular, while in other parts they are not. In som

Justice committee  I'm not aware of the statistics or whether we have comparative statistics. Alyson, do you know? We're not aware if we have statistics comparing conditional sentence offenders to other types of offenders. We can check to see if Stats Canada has something on that.

Justice committee  That's correct.