Thank you, Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to address the committee.
I'm sure the justice committee is very aware of the role the provincial Attorney General and his or her agents play in our criminal justice system. But just as confirmation, I guess, for those who torture themselves by reading Hansard for a committee, the provincial Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting the Criminal Code. So that's everything from shoplifting to murder.
As you know, federal crown attorneys are responsible for drug crimes, under the Narcotics Act, and other offences. But within the rubric of organized crime--in guns and gang crime--it is the provinces that are responsible for most of the prosecutions involving guns and gangs, unless there specifically end up being drug crime charges.
In the province of Ontario, unlike in the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia, for example, there is a distinction between who lays the charges and who prosecutes the charges. In B.C. and Quebec, the charges are laid by crown attorneys. Here in Ontario, charges are laid by the police, and then the provincial agents of the Attorney General decide whether to prosecute based on whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and if it's in the public interest.
In Ontario, there are 900 crown attorneys--900 prosecutors--who address 500,000 charges every year. As such, the Criminal Law Division in the Province of Ontario has a considerable amount of experience, and I will say that they have developed a considerable amount of expertise. They have had the opportunity to work with officials in the federal Department of Justice under different governments and are obviously more than happy to work with the Department of Justice under this government, and have done so.
There's a role for the province and the municipality and the federal government in the fight against gun crime. It is not solely the job of one level of government. I will quickly go through a few things the province is doing, and then if you'll permit me, Chair, I'll spend the bulk of my time talking about the bill—issues around amendments, issues around why have mandatory, and some examples--and then I'll happily take your questions.
The province's approach to guns and gangs--Ontario's approach, the McGuinty government's approach--is that we have to do everything. It is not simply a matter of crackdowns alone or prevention alone or deterrents alone or denunciation alone. It is the whole package. So for the first time in Ontario, we established a guns and gangs task force that involved both police and prosecutors working together, literally, in the same building and on the same floor.
A few months after I had the honour and opportunity of being sworn in, for the first time, a crown prosecutor, a crown attorney for the Province of Ontario, left his offices and moved into the offices of Chief Blair. The purpose of that, and the purpose of having prosecutors and police working together is this. As you heard from Chief Blair, there are thousands and thousands, sometimes over 100,000, wiretaps, often in many different languages. Usually most of the evidence involved in guns and gangs cases involves electronic surveillance. The disclosure requirements established by the Supreme Court of Canada and pursuant to our charter require timely disclosure. The search and seizure powers and the sophistication of some of the gangs, who understand very well what the laws are, has led to Ontario's approach to what we call organized justice.
We want to be one step ahead of organized crime, not just traditional organized crime, but organized crime in the form of the street gangs we see, literally franchised operations with recruitment practices and a level of sophistication with some of them--as Chief Blair said, not all of them, but a level of sophistication--that allows them to do their best, unfortunately, to try to organize themselves around both the federal-provincial division of responsibilities and also around the Criminal Code and the justice system itself. Thus, we have organized justice. We have a crown attorney working with our police officers from day one of an investigation right through to the end. That assists in terms of timely disclosure. That assists in terms of ensuring all aspects of the investigation, and ultimately the evidence will be usable and positive before the courts, etc.
It's expanded. We now have more than 60 prosecutors in the guns and gangs task force. We've established an operations centre that will be operational in January that puts everybody in the same room, all levels, RCMP, provincial policing and municipal policing, as well as enforcement. There's room for federal prosecutors. Obviously, there will be Ontario crown attorneys and the technology and the wiretapping experts. There's no substitute for being able to walk down the hall and talk to your colleagues, instead of having them across town or in some cases across the province.
Third, we entered into an agreement with other provinces, Quebec and Manitoba--Ontario did so simply because of geographic proximity--to have the provinces collaborate on guns and gangs operations. Obviously, these are international and national efforts for some organized crime. The prosecution effort involves work from literally 10 or more police forces, different municipal police forces, several provinces, sometimes several countries. We have collaboration between provinces now. It has existed over the years, but it has never been formal or formalized. There has never been a real push to collaborate to get one step ahead of organized crime and, for example, to share expert evidence. So if an expert is being used in one province for a gun crime, and we know that person is there and is in Manitoba and we know how that went, we may be able to use that expert in the province of Ontario. There's no reason why that can't expand across the country.
Our government fast-tracked an additional 1,000 police officers, and we also established major crimes courts, courts geared toward these relatively new prosecutions that involve dozens and dozens and sometimes over 100 accused. That involves particular security requirements. As you can imagine, that means we have to keep the witnesses apart from the accused. We have to protect victims' rights, thus the special victims unit within the operations centre. As I said, electronic surveillance dominates these trials, and therefore we have to have courts that can accommodate that, thus the establishment of these major crimes courts.
Next, again, I said we have to do everything. We use our provincial legislation, civil legislation, to seize and in some cases forfeit property that's used for unlawful activities. Yesterday we announced the seizure of a crack house in Hamilton, not the first, but the second crack house we've seized in Hamilton using the provincial civil legislation.
Last is prevention. We have to do it all. So the premier established a challenge fund, an up to $45 million challenge fund to prevent, to reach out to communities, to provide opportunities to communities, so people don't have to choose between a gang and doing nothing, but rather have community activities they can turn to.
Enough of telling you what I do for a living; let me get into your bill. Thanks for your indulgence.
Ontario supports Bill C-10. Ontario, at least since the McGuinty government has been in office, has been calling for increased mandatory minimum sentences. I have written to the previous justice minister and the current justice minister, attended federal-provincial-territorial justice ministers meetings, and attempted to forge a consensus among justice ministers. We achieved that in Whitehorse, which I'll speak about in just a moment.
We support mandatory minimum sentences.
I am encouraged by the federal government's commitment to move the justice system forward.
We view mandatory minimum sentences as part of a larger package, as I've just discussed in terms of what the province's role is. This is not the only change that Parliament ought to address and of course is addressing.
I don't know what time it is, but I think it may be at this very second that the Prime Minister, the premier, and the mayor are making an announcement on bail reform.
As I say, under the McGuinty government, Ontario has been pursuing the fight for zero tolerance on gun crimes. We are very committed to doing that, to doing all we can to fight gun violence.
In November 2005, at the federal-provincial-territorial justice ministers meeting in Whitehorse, Ontario, we worked with the other justice ministers and with the federal minister to establish a national consensus, which was achieved at that time, that sentences for gun-related offences should carry increased mandatory minimums.
At that meeting, Ontario proposed, among other things, two new offences, which we are pleased form part of the proposed bill that we're here to discuss. The creation of the charges of breaking and entering to steal a firearm and robbery to steal a firearm would, if passed, officially recognize two crimes that unfortunately have become all too common in this world of gun and gang culture.
I said I support the bill. I also understand that committees have work to do, and one of the things committees consider is the specifics in the amendments. So I'd like to speak to that for just a moment.
Ontario is concerned about the application of mandatory minimum sentences, about how they are used. It has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada that minimum sentences have an inflationary effect, as Madam Justice Arbour upheld in Morrisey. Namely, I would argue that minimum sentences are the floor, they're not the ceiling, but the bill, prima facie, does not reflect that right now. So I would submit that a statement of principle to the effect that mandatory minimum jail sentences are minimums and not maximums would be helpful in ensuring that the courts do not use a mandatory minimum as the tariff, because if it's used as a tariff, then it will not be a minimum; it will be used as a maximum.
A statement of principle to that effect would be helpful in clarifying that for the courts, and obviously if the Department of Justice or this committee wishes Ontario officials to provide some more specific language around that, we would be happy to assist on that front.
The bill ought to address, in my submission, a number of sentencing issues.
First, the bill could better toughen the prohibition period for possession of firearms and ammunition.
Secondly, we would recommend that the bill provide sentencing judges with the power to increase the period of parole ineligibility for any sentence involving a firearm-related offence.
Thirdly, we would recommend that the bill deal with section 92 of the Criminal Code, the possession of a firearm--knowing its possession is unauthorized--to provide for a mandatory minimum jail sentence for a first offence.
Fourthly, we would recommend that the bill provide a mandatory minimum jail sentence under section 94 for those found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm while in a car.
On those two offences, and I understand that they are not entirely without controversy, the idea is this. If you get into a car and you have a firearm, you need to know that if you get pulled over, you're going to go to jail. I can only imagine the danger posed to police officers pulling over somebody who has a firearm in that car. Not having a mandatory minimum sentence, I would argue, does not (a) send the right message and (b) does not denounce that offence to the extent that it ought to be denounced.
The same argument, I would argue, should be applied to the possession of a firearm, knowing that its possession is unauthorized, to provide for a mandatory minimum jail sentence for a first offence. Again, it's if you are in public and you have a firearm and you know it is unauthorized. We are not talking about the hunter here. We're talking about the person in public with a firearm knowing it's an unauthorized firearm. You need to know, when you decide to walk out of your house or apartment, or wherever you were where you got that gun, that if you get caught, you're going to go to a jail.
I think that's entirely consistent with the principles and the spirit behind this bill. It would be a significant denunciation of those gang members who have weapons on them and who know that they are unauthorized.
I also want to speak to the issue of resources, to reiterate what has been said at the federal-provincial-territorial justice ministers meeting. As you know, we already have increased the number of prosecutors in the province of Ontario, entirely funded by the treasury in the province. We have also appointed more justices to the Ontario Court of Justice than in any other three-year period in the history of the province. There have been more than 60 additions to the Ontario Court of Justice in the last three years--60, six zero. We've done that to enhance the ability of the criminal justice system. We've added 1,000 new police officers as well and have established the provincial operations centre. These are part of a $51 million expansion of the criminal justice system announced last January by the premier, Chief Blair, and the commissioner for the OPP. It is the single largest expansion, in one fell swoop, of the criminal justice system the province has ever seen. So I would submit that we're doing our part in the province of Ontario.
Obviously, accused persons, under this bill, will be facing increased penalties. That's going to have an impact on the justice system; it always has. In the past, the federal government has assisted the provinces in funding federal legislative initiatives, especially when the bill carried the type of anticipated pressure that this one carries. The submission was made by all the provincial and territorial justice ministers to the federal justice ministers at the last federal-provincial-territorial meeting last autumn in Newfoundland. I would argue the precedent of the federal government assisting the provinces with federal legislative initiatives that has applied in the past should apply in this case.
Let me get into mandatory minimum sentences and why. In my respectful submission, the debate over mandatory minimum sentences is a false debate. We have mandatory minimum sentences in Canada. We already have them. And we already have them for gun crimes. The question is, which offences? And where there are mandatory minimum sentences already, what should the increases be?
The purpose is to incapacitate persons who have been convicted of gun crimes, persons who have proven themselves to be dangerous. They have the most dangerous weapon imaginable to the public--a firearm, a gun--and they ought to be incapacitated.
Denunciation is, obviously, another purpose.
Deterrence has been spoken to already by the chief, and I would echo his remarks. Deterrence applies to some; it doesn't apply to others. If deterrence was the sole purpose of the mandatory minimum for murder, you could make the argument that some people are not going to be deterred by the sentence. Of course, it applies to some but not to others. The reason we have the sentence we do for murder is, in part, because of denunciation by Parliament. So it should apply with respect to gun crimes.
I want to give a few examples of—