Thank you.
Thank you very much, witnesses, for being here—in particular, of course, Mr. Andrews, and more specifically, Mr. and Mrs. Bagby.
I have only three minutes and there are many things I would like to explore with you. The first one is that, quite frankly, I agree with your five points, and in particular, the point that murder is not just another crime. Actually, you have to live with the people who have experienced murder and/or any crime in their residence--sometimes it's just a break and enter into a person's residence. As a police officer, I saw time and time again where people could not live, or found it difficult to live, in their home because someone had broken into their home. They never felt secure after that. Their children cried at night.
The court system, I have to say, is moving towards listening more to victims, but I believe it needs to move a little bit further on caring about the victims, and in particular the victims of murder, because people live with it.
I have to apologize in a way, but I guess I don't in another way. I have mixed feelings about your coming here today, because you have to relive and keep reliving this. But I think when you go to bed at night, you know that it's part of your closure, that you're doing something about a tragic thing that happened in your family.
In terms of our justice system, although it has many warts and blemishes, I believe it to be one of the best in the world. As police officers, we were constantly reminded by crown attorneys and other lawyers that our system is based on the fact that better ten guilty people go free than one innocent person be convicted. I think we need to begin to look at that in terms of different crimes. There should be a different weight put to that thought.
Lastly, when I look at this committee, when I look at a Canadian looking at our committee, listening to us, finding out where our heads are at when we try to change the law, or if I were reading the results of this hearing or reading the testimony...I'd like to know as a Canadian why the justice gave the person bail.
Can you recall the reasons given for the person being released on bail?