Justice committee  Well, Mr. Taylor can correct me if my memory fails me, but I believe that the bill does contemplate that there could be cross-examination on the affidavit itself. I doubt that it would be used very often, because if you have to bring the officer to court anyway, you might as well put him on the stand and lead him through his evidence-in-chief.

Justice committee  The answer to that is essentially no. You are quite correct when you say that the definition in the bill of what constitutes “routine evidence” is potentially very broad, but it is still qualified by the use of the term “routine”. As my colleague Mr. Taylor has pointed out, there are factors set out in the legislation for the judge to consider, which include a consideration of how central the evidence is to the prosecution case or, for that matter, the defence case.