Let me just respond quickly to your question on information sharing. Don't believe what people tell you. We share information appropriately on a case-by-case basis. I've never had a case not proceed because the Mounties wouldn't tell us things or we wouldn't tell them. That's a fallacy. People tell you that. There are isolated cases in which it might not happen, but generally.... In fact in British Columbia we're mandated to all be on the same computer systems, effectively, and the Mounties have done that.
Secondly, I haven't heard of the evidentiary repository before. That would present some issues for me. We don't have a problem collecting evidence, and presenting it to the courts. I didn't get a chance in my comments to say that one of the biggest issues this committee could tackle is the issue of what are called non-returnable warrants. If you commit a crime in Quebec, in Montreal, and a warrant is issued for your arrest, they put a radius on the warrant of 100 kilometres or within the province of Quebec. If you come to Vancouver and get caught on another crime, you get bail. You're not held to account in different jurisdictions. We know we have the Attorney Generals' interest on this issue, both provincially and federally. I know they're talking about it for the first time in about thirty years, but I think it's one of the biggest scandals we've faced for years--that offenders can travel at will, back and forth across the country.
Regarding the statistics on plea bargaining, I don't know. I'm always very cautious about criticizing what goes on in the courtroom, because unless you're there to hear the evidentiary package presented, you don't know the decisions that are made. Inevitably, if the evidence allows you to take a plea to a lesser offence because the case might not be as strong, and there's an iffy chance of whether you might convict, then you roll the dice. Sometimes a bird in the hand is better than nothing at all. So sometimes those decisions are made. If they plea bargain away one of Larry's cases, and it's a good, solid case, I'm on the phone right away to the chief prosecutor, and I raise a big fuss. But that doesn't happen very often.