Thank you very much, and I want to thank you for inviting our organization to participate in this discussion and to appear before the committee. I know some of you. I represent 26 member associations from across the country, from coast to coast, who represent thousands of volunteers who form part of our membership but also form our board of directors.
Certainly our president sends her regrets. She had hoped to come today as well, but she was unable to be here.
Our organization, as many of you know, represents and works with marginalized, victimized, criminalized, and institutionalized women and girls across the country. We're here because of the concern we have that the potential impact of some of the proposed amendments on the lives of those women and girls is profound, certainly the girls and the young women who may potentially be impacted by the legislation.
Corresponding with the inception of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, we have seen a decrease in incarceration without a corresponding increase in crime—and I think that's an important piece—as well as, as I understand it, without a necessarily corresponding increase in victimization.
We do believe that there needs to be far more investment in the early intervention methods that certainly the witness before me spoke about, in terms of early intervention, supportive mechanisms, social services, educational services, health services--all of the things that have been cut, services that when they are not available to provide support, their lack actually contributes to young people ending up in the criminal justice system. We don't see that as a place for this legislation and in fact think that the changes proposed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act to push those cases out of the criminal justice system and into an appropriate service, whether it's mental health, social services, or educational services, are supportable and should continue.
We believe that many of the amendments proposed are unnecessary. There are already provisions in the legislation that allow for many of the approaches that are being proposed. We believe that the majority of the issues that are raised and the concerns that are raised by the proposed legislation can and should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis by the existing legislation, using the judicial discretion that already is available.
We have some concerns, for instance, regarding the removal of the presumption for pretrial release, including for property offences. We know now that if in fact there is a risk of violent reoffending, the provision already exists to keep someone in custody, where there have been mechanisms tried that have failed. All of those opportunities still exist.
We know that the more you fetter the discretion of the judge, the greater the likelihood you'll see more individuals end up in the system with fewer opportunities for them to have the cases individualized, in terms of the plans for rehabilitation and reintegration that are so key and have been so successful, we would suggest, in terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
We think that the introduction of deterrence and denunciation, as well as proportionality, really, that is being suggested for the principals...these are terms that are quite subjective and difficult to quantify, and will not necessarily provide an opportunity for greater intervention for rehabilitation purposes, or ultimately therefore for public safety, but in fact will likely see exactly what we've seen in the adult system as well, which is more people coming into the system, waiting for longer periods to be assessed, with risk assessments that aren't even validated for young people being applied, and the difficulty then of trying to extricate those individuals from the very system the YCJA was initially introduced to try to unclog and has quite successfully done so.
We think the definition of serious offences now including property crimes is problematic and certainly is too far-reaching, and it will essentially disallow some of the discretion the judges currently have.
We also think the suggestion to lift more easily publication bans is another unnecessary provision. That already exists in the legislation. I believe it's section 127. Application can already be made to lift a publication ban in extraordinary circumstances.
I note that at the same time as there is much discussion and concern about gang-related activity, one of the things we know is that the young people who we have worked with, young women in particular, often who have been—you'll pardon the bluntness and crudeness of it—gang-banged into gangs, who try to extricate themselves...if in fact, based on some of these sorts of provisions, they are exposed, it becomes very difficult for them to extricate themselves in the way that many young women we've had the privilege and responsibility of working with have been able to extricate themselves—with some anonymity, with an ability to move on, with an ability sometimes to even move geographic location. Nevertheless, if there is still perceived to be a need to lift those publication bans, there is a procedure that currently exists to allow that to be done.
We think the challenge of greater reporting and the demonstration before the court that young people have participated in extrajudicial measures is also a concern, in the sense that we already know some of the statistics on racial profiling and some of the issues around the overrepresentation of racialized youth, particularly African Canadian youth and aboriginal youth, and the concern that in fact there is not a need for this kind of measure.
Everybody knows now, if you work in and around the court system, that if you've been victimized, if you've been criminalized, if you've been institutionalized, this information does come into play. It can come into play in sentencing; it can come into play in the process in terms of determining whether someone is held in custody awaiting trial. All of those measures currently exist.
We do support, however, the recognition in the preamble that young people have diminished blame or moral blameworthiness and culpability. We think that is a measure that was read by many of us as implicit in the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but explicitly stating it doesn't hurt, particularly in light of the fact that there has been the introduction of a suggestion that deterrence and denunciation be introduced at the same time as we have recently had decisions of the courts that in fact that's unnecessary and not applicable to young people.
We also think the provision of clause 21, that no young people under the age of 21 be transferred into youth facilities, is something that is very supportable. We think the presumption in favour of adult sentences being repealed and replaced by the crown onus is also a positive move.
We are very happy to answer questions. We have certainly other suggestions that we can make, but we're happy to move on and don't want to take any more time from colleagues and other witnesses.
Thank you.