Status of Women committee  Indeed, CanLII is a free and extensive online search engine that contains over a million decisions from Canada's courts and administrative tribunals, as well as laws and regulations from across the country. It's a non-governmental organization and it is funded by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, which is the national coordinating body of Canada's 14 provincial and territorial law societies.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. In terms of the court record, I want to make it clear that when an oral reason is recorded on the court record, it becomes available. It's available at the court. Some places sometimes have certain photocopy fees, but those are more minimal. That's distinguished from the actual transcript.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I would like to thank the honourable member for proposing that the requirement for written reasons be replaced by language that is already reflected in the Criminal Code. It is reflected in section 278.8 as well as 276.2 with regard to third party record application hearings as well as rape shield application hearings.

Status of Women committee  We at the justice department also work with victim services at the provincial and territorial level. Some of them are delivered through the police services; others are court-based or NGO-based. We work in particular on trauma-informed and culturally relevant services. That is really important.

Status of Women committee  The responsibility, though, for the delivery of those services is provincial. We are supplementing it through transfers to the provinces and territories, and through funds, grants, and contributions to organizations. It will vary depending on the jurisdiction.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. Like our colleagues at INAC, our grants and contributions fund is also application-based. We do fund a number of organizations that work in this area, such as the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and Kids Help Phone. A number of different organizations are well situated to conduct this kind of outreach to this particular target group to raise awareness.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question. I'm sorry if I was misleading. PHAC is the coordinator of the family violence initiative, and the component that refers to the justice system relates to the Department of Justice's role within that initiative in the federal family violence initiative.

Status of Women committee  I think it varies enormously, depending on victims. I think victims don't all look the same and they don't all want the same thing from the system. It depends on the context within which the crime occurs and, of course, their individual experience with it. If we ask victims generally about their satisfaction, there's a difference between their satisfaction with the way in which they were treated by players within the system and the results, because the results are based on a standard of proof, and in a lot of ways that's beyond the control of the players they have direct contact with.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. The provinces and territories all are responsible primarily for the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences, sexual offences. There are victim services across the country, which we do support through the victims fund, and a number of them do a number of outreach projects with victims.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I'm not sure I understand exactly, because federal policy is somewhat removed in some ways. Apart from our funding to the provinces and territories for victims' services, we don't generally provide direct services to victims. We do have a couple of specific funds available, one funding pot for victims to attend parole hearings and another for Canadian victims of crime abroad.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Just in terms of the issue about funding for projects related to young women and girls, I did forget to mention that we do have a component of the victims fund that's dedicated to developing and enhancing the child advocacy centres across the country. They work specifically with child victims, particularly victims of sexual abuse, many of whom are girls.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for inviting the Department of Justice to appear before you today. I am senior counsel and acting director of the Policy Centre for Victim Issues. I am joined today by my colleague Nathalie Levman, counsel with the Criminal Law Policy Section.