Thank you very much for coming, gentlemen.
I guess, with my background, I could give you a whole whack of anecdotal evidence or anecdotal stories or references related to some of the questions I'm going to ask. I'm going to mention a particular judge, because I think he had it right. Unfortunately, in other jurisdictions I think they have it wrong.
Just up the creek here, in Pembroke, Ontario, I had the privilege of working with Judge Russell Merredew, who did a study in his court of the number of charges. The largest number of charges were for breaches of probation. His statement was that the court has only one power, and that's the power of its orders. That's all it has. When people disrespect or don't adhere to the orders of the court, basically you have anarchy. So what he did in his court was that for the second charge of breach of probation, he had a specific number for incarceration, and every defence counsel knew what that number was. A third offence had another number. The fourth offence had another number. And guess what happened to the number of charges for breach of probation? It went down significantly.
In other courts I had the privilege of working in, with the acquiesce of the judiciary, the breaches of probation, under negotiation with the crown and defence, were the first charges to be disposed of. Judge Merredew didn't permit that in his court. I'm using his name. I suspect he's retired now. I just wanted to throw that out.
This graph would disturb any Canadian. Now, I'm no longer in the other field of work, where I could say some things and almost get away with them. I can't say some things here, because my political adversaries would like to haul me out in the court of public view and nail me to the wall. But let me just say this, and then I'm going to ask you for your comment. Obviously, you gentlemen--I'm referring specifically to Mr. Park and Mr. Rezac--did your homework before you came here. You made some presentations to us. This graph indicates something serious.
When we, as a government, tried to begin to bring in people to the judiciary who we thought best represented....
When we first became police officers, during our orientation we were told that the basic model is common law and that the average, common person, the average man and woman out in society, would be able to not only comprehend the law that governs us but comprehend and accept and give acquiescence to the administration of that law in terms of enforcement and the execution of justice.
In your humble opinion, do you believe that Canadians today understand the law as it is and the reasoning of the judges and the judiciary who are paid to represent the common man and render sentences upon people who commit antisocial behaviour? I'm using the touchy-feely words.