Evidence of meeting #33 for Justice and Human Rights in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was slide.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
It's far less than 1% of 400,000.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
I think Mr. Lemay asked this question before. There was a suggestion that minimal penalties would result in more so-called plea bargaining. Has there been any evidence to support that suggestion? To clarify what you said before, I think I recall you saying there isn't any evidence that supports that.
Director, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
We don't have any data in our courts program that speaks to any of the processes around plea negotiations and so forth. What we do have in our data is...we know there were fewer guilty pleas for firearms cases over the course of this time period.
Project Manager, Courts Program, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
What we can also say from the data and looking at those offences is that for 10 offences that came into force in 1996, there is a greater number pleading guilty to a lesser or included offence. They're not pleading guilty to the charged offence; they're pleading guilty to another offence.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
How about the percentage of convictions? Are there stats that suggest minimum penalties have resulted in a greater number of convictions?
Director, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
If you take a look at slide 9 in your package, you'll see that since the implementation of the legislation in 1996, the proportion of those firearms cases that have been convicted has been falling. It was 47% in 1996-97. It was down to 36% in 2003-04.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
When you looked at the regions in these test areas, were there any particular trends that you found in the greater Toronto area? Would there have been a higher reporting of gun violence?
Director, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
We haven't examined the data at that level.
Project Manager, Courts Program, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
For court data, we haven't looked at sub-provincial data, because there are issues with police catchment areas and court catchment areas. Establishing a court geography is very difficult. In some jurisdictions, the reporting location would reflect a county or district. In other locations, it would reflect an individual location. Establishing the population base for an individual court location is very difficult. Doing sub-provincial breakdowns of the court data and doing comparisons among jurisdictions is very difficult.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
Thank you, Mr. Brown.
I have a question I would like to ask. I see from the collection of this data that you applied only information you obtained from major cities, with the exception of Quebec. Am I reading that correctly? You have Montreal, and then you have Quebec, or is that Quebec City? It's Quebec City. So you basically took from some of the cities.
I can't say they're all down here, but how different would the stats be if you included the rural...? Obviously, RCMP information wasn't included in this.
Chief, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
Not in this particular graph.... This is a graph of the nine largest metropolitan cities in Canada. We do have information for the RCMP. Some of their detachments may actually fall in some of these metropolitan areas, but for the most part, it's not included in here. But we do have the data.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
By looking at Vancouver, you're looking at New Westminster, you're looking at Delta, you're looking at Coquitlam--at very large centres all around the city of Vancouver. And the city of Vancouver really has a population of maybe a million people, whereas the Lower Mainland would have three million.
Chief, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
Yes, so we include the whole area, including the RCMP detachments.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
Okay. What difference would there be in the statistics by including all the rural information?
November 22nd, 2006 / 5:05 p.m.
Chief, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
We haven't studied the specific breakdown of rural-urban. It's something we could look at. Actually, we're starting to work on a new report looking at that specific issue of rural-urban crime. So it's something we could look at and get back to you on.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
Yes. I think it would be valuable for us to do that, because you're looking at a population in these particular cities here that might reflect only 50% of the population in the country. I know they're all major cities, but we still have a lot more.
Mr. Murphy.
Liberal
Brian Murphy Liberal Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB
That's a very good question, Mr. Chairman.
It begs the whole other question I have as to what statistics you might have on gun legislation. The Criminal Code is antiquated, but there are a number of restricted weapons and sections in the Criminal Code that have been introduced over time.
I don't suppose you have ever gone back historically and tried to chart the coming into force of the various gun restrictions or control measures, including, of course, the famous long gun registry, and seen any change in gun-related crimes with those benchmarks. Has that been done, or could it be done easily? You would have to be told what benchmarks we're looking at in terms of restricted weapon definitions, etc.
Director, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
Absolutely.
Liberal