I think we should, but I think we should also look at what we do when we ask.... Your point about a victim's feeling a responsibility to come I think is a very real issue. It's a time when many people don't want to be re-victimized and don't want to revisit, for all kinds of reasons. I think recognizing that there are different reasons for that is important.
If we're going to really focus on the needs of victims, we should be looking much earlier in the process. At the time these offences happen, there should be massive amounts of support provided for individuals, not support that feels very much like an afterthought of providing an opportunity for impact statements in a context in which our system has never contemplated that, and for good reason. I am not speaking now just as someone who works within the system, but also as someone who is a mother and has children and has had the experience that I talked about.
To pretend that we're actually providing some support and assistance to victims by allowing them to do victim impact statements at any stage is false. It's not a system that contemplates victim involvement, except as witnesses or in some other way. If we really want to meet the needs of victims, we should be looking at the very real trauma and loss that happens and how we assist in those stages, and not try to mess about with fair and due process rights and charter rights in a context in which what we really want is a fair system. We've set up the system in the way we have because we recognize that if you came to me right after something had happened to my child, I wouldn't be able to think fairly about that individual at all.