I don't think Mr. Dykstra meant anything negative. He wanted some clarification. I don't remember the context, but I can tell you that I defend police officers and we consult with police officers. I just was representing a person charged with the first degree murder of a police officer and had all kinds of nice things said about the way it was handled.
I don't take anything personal from it. We come up here to try to help you; sometimes anecdotal things are said by all kinds of different witnesses here.
Look, I get up in the morning. I go to work. I have little kids and old kids. The first person I call when there's a problem is a police officer, and sometimes the first person police officers call when they have problems is me. I have a great deal of respect for the tough job they are doing.
I am concerned about the politicization of the police; I have said that publicly and will say it again. On the other hand, we work very hard with police at the national steering committee of the Canadian council, and you can't change the system without hearing from the stakeholders. You may be skeptical about some of the things I say. You can say that I'm just a defence lawyer; well, the police association may come here, and you may say, “Wait a minute; they're a police association.” The chiefs may come here and have a different view of it.
One of the sweetnesses of Canada is the respect we have for the police, but that doesn't mean that we can't be careful about the abuse of power, because they have extraordinary power.