Evidence of meeting #53 for Justice and Human Rights in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief and Advisor, Courts Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
In 1998, 29% of guilty cases were sentenced to custody--that's either opened or closed custody--and that declined, up until the introduction of the YCJA, down to approximately 22%. For the first year of the YCJA, it was 22%--2003-04--and it's now 15%.
Liberal
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
On two of your slides, where it talks about median number of days served by youth in remand and median number of days served by youth in custody, you state that some of the provinces are not included due to unavailability of data. Could you explain why there's no data from Quebec? That's one.
The second question would be this. In my understanding of the Young Offenders Act, at the time that that was in existence, of all of the provinces, Quebec had the lowest percentage of youth who were “judiciarized”, brought before the courts. Once they were brought before the courts, there was a higher rate of incarceration, and at that time, with the Young Offenders Act, there was actually a lower rate of recidivism amongst Quebec youth. Was that the case? Secondly, given the statistics that you've shown here, I believe one of our previous witnesses, if not you, said that even today Quebec has a lower rate of recidivism under the YCJA. Is that correct?
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I'll ask Ms. Kong to respond about the Quebec data.
I don't have specific information about Quebec and the recidivism rate in front of me, unless others brought it with them.
Chief and Advisor, Courts Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I can't comment on the rate of recidivism in Quebec, but I do have some statistics in front of me on the proportion sentenced to custody in Quebec and all provinces. In 1999-2000 the proportion sentenced to custody for guilty cases in Quebec was 23%. The national total was 28%. In 2008-09 in Quebec it was 12%, and the national proportion was 15%.
Conservative
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for the effort you made to send us the statistics in advance. However, you seem to be using the latest versions of software available on the market. Unfortunately, I noticed that I did not have them. I nevertheless managed to open the documents after a number of tries. However, you'll see that there are differences between my version and the one here.
You've presented us with a lot of statistics to enable us to judge what happens once young offenders are arrested. I would have liked to begin at the beginning and have the youth crime rate in Canada and for each province. I know that police officers across Canada have a form that, I believe, is entitled the uniform crime report in which all the information on a crime is reported in the same manner. That's the first thing I expected to see. Is youth crime increasing or declining? I believe the reports made by police officers when a crime is reported provide a specific, although not absolute, idea of the crime rate. We don't have that. Would it be possible to get it and for the information to be spread over a longer period?
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I will refer you to the crime Juristat that was provided to you with the materials that were sent out, the “Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2009”. In there, at the end, a number of detailed data tables will provide you with time series information for the last ten years, looking at the total crime severity index, the violent crime severity index, and the non-violent crime severity for Canada in total, and also the crime rate in Canada in total. We also have specific information starting I think at table 7A, looking at the youth crime severity indexes,1999 to 2009, and following through with youth on a variety of information by province and territory.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
When did you send that to us? This is the first time I've seen it. Is that the document you're talking about?
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes. That information was released by Statistics Canada in July of 2010 through the daily publication. We brought this as a table drop today, but it is publicly available on the Statistics Canada website.
Bloc
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I would have to check with our parliamentary relations officer if it was sent in advance.
She's letting me know that the materials were sent last week.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
In future, we'll have to check our means of communication because I haven't received it and that's precisely what I was looking for.
I see the article was written by Ms. Mia Dauvergne. Further to what Ms. Jennings asked you earlier, is it true that the youth crime rate is lower in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada?
Mia Dauvergne Senior Analyst, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
If I could refer you to table 9 of that report, we do have information on the youth crime rate in Canada and it's broken down by province and territory.
Senior Analyst, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
On the English copy it would be page 35. On the French copy....
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
It's just before the references at the end of the article.
Senior Analyst, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
Okay? And yes, you can see from that table that the youth crime rate in Quebec was the lowest in the country for 2009.
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
These data are only 2009; however, if it is of interest to the committee, we can provide this going back in time.
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I didn't have them with me today, but I can provide them to the committee if necessary.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
You didn't provide us with any tables that would show us whether crime had increased by province or not.
Senior Analyst, Policing Services Program, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
There is a Canada total chart, which is available at chart 15, which is also toward the end of the report, but it is not specifically broken down by province and territory over the long-term period. But as Ms. McAuley said, we could certainly provide that to the committee.
