Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.
Many of you will know that the CACP appears before your committee and before the Senate on a wide range of bills. Generally speaking, we tend to appear on bills that consist of amendments to substantive offences and those affecting police powers. However, while Bill C-9 deals solely with the matter of sentencing, we do have some comments that we hope will be of assistance to you.
We understand you have a busy session ahead of you, with many bills. I would like to take the opportunity to give you a snapshot of our association's overall view of criminal law reform.
With respect to Bill C-9, the proposed changes to the scope of the conditional sentence orders, the CACP supports the bill and believes that conditional sentence orders are an inappropriate response to violent or other serious crime. We would, however, offer two points for consideration.
The first point is with respect to the scope of the bill. The background material published on the parliamentary website suggests that some criticism of the bill has stated that by placing the eligibility for CSOs at indictable offences carrying a ten-year or greater penalty, the bill captures offences that are not offences of violence or otherwise considered serious. I think we heard my friend from the John Howard Society refer to that. From our point of view, we suggest the opposite is also true, in that one offence in particular is excluded from the scope of the amendment. That is subsection 467.11, which provides a five-year penalty for those convicted or participating in activities of a criminal organization. On the other hand, the other two criminal organization offences, subsection 467.12, commission of an offence for a criminal organization, and subsection 467.13, instructing commission of an offence for criminal organization, are covered by the amendment, as they carry a maximum penalty in excess of ten years.
The CACP is of the view and our organized crime committee is of the view that this is an anomalous result and that CSO should be unavailable for any offence involving a criminal organization. We need hardly remind this honourable committee of the serious threat organized crime poses to the safety and security of Canadians. We respectfully suggest, therefore, that the Canadian public would find the use of the CSO for persons participating in the activity of a criminal organization contrary to a favourable view of the criminal justice system.
This is not to say, however, that we object to the manner in which the bill is drafted. If Parliament is inclined to agree with us on the matter, we would further respectfully caution against an amendment that creates schedules or lists of offences. As the CACP has observed before, the criminal law, and most especially the Criminal Code, has gradually increased in its complexity such as to make it virtually unfathomable in places. Instead, we would suggest an amendment that specifically ensures that all offences committed by a criminal organization are ineligible for CSO.
Our second comment is more general in nature and falls along with the comments on the complexity of the criminal law and the public's general faith in the justice system.
This bill is arguably one of the least complex, in terms of its drafting, that we have seen in recent years. However, while Bill C-9 is not particularly complex, the law of sentencing in the Criminal Code is. As with many aspects of the Criminal Code, the CACP believes that quick fixes and band-aids are no longer sufficient. We believe two things: first, that the criminal law, including the law of sentencing, is in need of a sustained and comprehensive overhaul if the criminal justice system is to regain the eroding confidence of the public; second, that your policing community is well situated to provide meaningful participation and input.
Let me state clearly that this is not an indictment from your police about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Clearly, the charter has had an enormous impact on the way the police must do their job and how a criminal trial is conducted. Policing is a much more complex activity than it was before the charter, but so is the world in general, and we recognize that. It is the fundamental duty of all police officers to uphold respect for the law, and this applies with particular certainty to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Police in a democratic society must always be subject to the rule of law, and this is a value the CACP holds dear. However, we do believe that the legislative response to landmark charter decisions has been overly procedurally complex in such a way as to multiply the on-the-street impact of charter decisions to a point, perhaps, not envisioned by the Supreme Court. An example that comes immediately to mind is the addition of subsections 25.1 and 25.2 of the code, in response to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Campbell and Shirose. This amendment created a procedural regime that in practice has been very challenging to implement with consistency across the country.
To be frank, we have found it difficult to understand how and when this trend to undue complexity found root with the drafters of our criminal law. We intend to take every opportunity to advocate before you and the public for less complexity and more common sense in legislative drafting. I add parenthetically that these are points we make with justice officials frequently in our consultations.
In brief, therefore, we would offer our endorsement of the bill with the strong request that no CSO be available for offences involving organized crime. We would also ask that as this committee moves forward with its work you would consider the context in which the criminal laws must, as a matter of practice, be workable. You need not be reminded, I'm sure, that it is your police who must find their way through an increasingly complex society, using only those tools you allow them to keep, in order to keep the public safe.
For our part, the CACP will continue to offer you the voice of Canadian police leadership as you move forward with your work on this bill and on the many others to come.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
I'll ask my colleague to conclude.