I call the meeting to order. This is meeting 22 of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Today is Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
You have before you the agenda for today. As you will recall, the committee decided to do a study on declaring certain groups to be criminal organizations, as this is certainly an issue that has arisen in our organized crime study.
We're pleased to have with us four witnesses to help us with our study. First of all, we have William Bartlett, senior counsel, and Paula Clarke, counsel, in the criminal law policy section of the Department of Justice. Thank you for being here.
We also have Jocelyn Latulippe, chief inspector in the Sûreté du Québec; and also Denis Mainville, commander of the anti-gang section of the City of Montreal Police Service.
Welcome to all of you. You've been advised that each organization or individual will have 10 minutes to present, at which time we'll open the floor to questions.
Perhaps, Mr. Bartlett, we could start with you. You have 10 minutes.