Justice committee  I'll just add that fortunately for all of us, the diagnosis of psychopathy is very rare. We're talking about an extremely small number of people. For those who may be amenable to treatment and reintegration, my understanding is that the Correctional Service of Canada, which is strained for resources, often doesn't offer any program unless it's close to the potential release date, so we're dealing with a long period of time when habits get ingrained and when behaviour gets ingrained.

Justice committee  That's unless an amendment is made to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. This is purely a Criminal Code amendment.

Justice committee  If it proceeds by way of the Criminal Code, that's true. If it's pulled and then the CCRA modifications come in, it's a whole new ball game. That is an excellent question that could be asked of that bill.

Justice committee  I don't think I can add to that usefully, except to say that when Parliament expresses the sentence for imprisonment in legislation, the parole board simply has to accept that as a starting point. However, if we're talking about the mandate of the parole board to reintegrate individuals—we heard earlier about harm reduction—or if we're talking about the mandate of the system to see if the risk of offenders can be managed and they can be reintegrated in a way that is useful to society and themselves, then increasing the parole ineligibility period beyond 25 years would certainly encumber that.

Justice committee  Not to contradict my friend, it is true that the paramount consideration is the protection of society, but both the principles guiding parole board decisions and the criteria for granting parole refer to reintegration where the risk can be managed and where it is safe to do so.

Justice committee  I'm almost done, though. I must say I can complete it in two more minutes if I can proceed.

Justice committee  I would make one final point. We fear that passing an amendment such as this can only add to the confusion in the public's mind about the actual nature of the sentence for first degree murder. Under our current criminal justice system, the mandatory sentence is life, not just 25 years, yet we so often hear inaccurate reports in the media about someone being sentenced to 25 years for first degree murder.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. We appreciate this opportunity to appear to express our views on Bill C-266. For those who are not familiar with the Canadian Criminal Justice Association, let me take a minute to tell you that we are a voluntary sector organization.