Public Safety committee  Yes, we believe very much in the partnership between the various Canadian police forces. Mr. Carrique talked about it earlier. The Sûreté du Québec and the Ontario Provincial Police are working together very closely on this. It's hard to say what the funding should be, but it will certainly take a lot of funding.

Public Safety committee  I can tell you what the Association des directeurs de police du Québec thinks about this. The recommendation applies to all Canadian ports, but let's take the Port of Montreal as an example. If thousands of cars can easily be exported overseas from the Port of Montreal, it's not hard to imagine just how many types of illegal trade are going on at the Port of Montreal.

Public Safety committee  They certainly can. That said, there's no silver bullet for solving this problem. I'm not an expert and I don't work for the CBSA, but I assume that the agency is having trouble detecting falsified VINs. Personally, I can understand that. Law enforcement has VIN falsification experts.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Carrique could also answer that question, as far as putting works in place are concerned.

Public Safety committee  In fact, the police directors of Quebec believe that the auto theft market must be dealt with. If it remains extremely profitable to steal vehicles and export them, it will be extremely difficult to crack down on it. In light of this situation, we believe that one of the measures that should be taken is to significantly increase audits of what is going out of Canadian ports.

Public Safety committee  As we understand it, the CBSA verifies 100% of the containers it receives information on. In other words, when it has information that illegal goods could be in a certain container, it checks it. However, there is no systematic check of a certain number of containers leaving the country, or at least that was the case until very recently.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. As I said in my opening remarks, car theft is a crime that has evolved considerably. For example, people who steal vehicles are increasingly violent, and may even go so far as to drive at police officers. They will even attack citizens when citizens locate their vehicles.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair and honourable committee members, the Association des directeurs de police du Québec, or ADPQ, would like to thank you for inviting us to share our thoughts on the issue of car thefts in Canada. Not so long ago, car theft was seen as a minor, almost trivial matter. But, as we all know, times have changed.

Public Safety committee  I completely agree with Chief Bray: it's an important issue. We regularly carry out interventions on the ground, and these are often risky. In some cases, the person has a replica firearm or a compressed air firearm. It's very risky for both the police officer and the person, since there is a risk of someone firing on the person.

Public Safety committee  In the case of the border, we should obviously consider having mixed teams and dedicate more resources to addressing arms trafficking. That's crucial. Otherwise, there will always be far too many firearms. It is true that we are part of the working table on street gangs. We are currently using the fund to build safer communities under an agreement with the federal government.

Public Safety committee  I think that increasing the maximum penalty will work in exceptional cases, like for people charged with several counts of high-level arms trafficking. It is important to get this message across. With respect to Bill C‑5, I testified before another parliamentary committee. As we explained then, we understand the aim of the bill, which is an attempt to resolve the problem of over-representation of indigenous communities and racialized groups in prison.

Public Safety committee  Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank the committee for inviting the Association des directeurs de police du Québec to take part in this discussion. The Association des directeurs de police du Québec groups together 34 police services working in Quebec. They include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal and the Sûreté du Québec, as well as all of the other municipal police services.

Justice committee  I think the bill addresses a symptom of a much more troubling issue—the socio-economic hardships that certain groups face. I don't think this bill will achieve the goal. Above all, I think it will lead to serious offences being downplayed, when the perpetrators of those offences should actually face severe penalties.

Justice committee  Laval has a very small indigenous population. Nevertheless, visible minorities are overrepresented when it comes to certain types of crimes, for instance, involving gangs.

Justice committee  It comes back to what I was saying earlier. We have to do the groundwork, and that means focusing on prevention and social development, and helping marginalized communities. That is how we find the real solutions to major problems that have existed for years. The answer isn't simply to hand down lighter sentences.