Thank you, Chair.
Thank you so much for your presentations today and for appearing before this committee.
From the briefs you have jointly prepared it's quite clear that you're very familiar with Justice Nunn's commission of inquiry, his report, and the specific recommendations he made with regard to the YCJA. It's also very clear that you've looked very carefully at Bill C-4.
You have noted that there are sections that appear to create unintended consequences, and you propose amendments to fix them. There are other areas of the proposed amendments contained in Bill C-4 where you appear to not consider they should be done. If we take, for instance, adult sentences, there seems to be a real problem with Bill C-4 in that the crown would have to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt”, whereas from a complete reading and understanding of current jurisprudence that has been developed on this issue, it's clearly the aggravating circumstances, as you've just mentioned.
Do you feel that amendments can be brought to Bill C-4 that would correct all of the unintended consequences that you don't believe should happen because they would not be to the benefit of the youth criminal justice system? Can those sections of Bill C-4 that you feel are just wrong be salvaged through the amendments you're proposing? That's my first question.
Second, the federal government—or should I say the Harper government—has not in any way, to our knowledge, caused to be carried out any kind of serious study of the actual impacts of the YCJA across Canada in the different jurisdictions, with the assistance of the provincial governments, in order to have actual empirical data, actual evidence, as to what's working and what's not working. Do you feel that it might have been more appropriate to wait for such studies and the five-year review of the bill before moving on amendments?
If you tell me that's a political question and you don't feel comfortable answering it, I'll understand completely.