Yes, thank you.
I think it might have been a lot easier just to come to Ottawa to appear before the committee today. I apologize for not being there in person. I know that we're a bit late because of the delay, so I'll curtail my remarks a little so we can get straight to the questions.
I want to thank the committee for the invitation to present today the CBA's views on Bill C-26. As some of you may know, the CBA is a national association of over 37,000 lawyers, law students, notaries, academics, and judges. An important aspect of our mandate is seeking improvements in the law and the administration of justice. That's the perspective from which I appear before you today.
Personally, my capacity is as the vice-chair of the CBA's national criminal justice section. This section consists of a balance of crown and defence lawyers from every part of the country. I am a lawyer in Vancouver who does both crown and defence work.
The Criminal Code provisions concerning self-defence, defence of others, and defence of property have been the subject of decades of criticism and frustration for lawyers and judges, due to the multiplicity of code sections and subsections and many variations among their elements. Many high-profile cases in Canada have faltered on jury instructions regarding self-defence.
The CBA national criminal justice section has called for reform of these provisions of the code for many years—for over 25 years, in fact—so it's with great happiness that we see this bill coming forward with the proposed amendments to the law of self-defence. In particular, we support the bill's creation of two comprehensive sections concerning the defence of self and the defence of others, and indeed including the defence of property as well.
This bill represents an historic and significant step in the evolution of the law and, hopefully, the simplification of the law of self-defence. It's in light of that historical context and the likelihood that if this bill is passed, this iteration of the law of self-defence will remain on the books for many decades, that there are some small amendments the CBA proposes to help fine-tune the provisions contained in Bill C-26 that are related to self-defence.
Hopefully, we'll get into some of those details later as questions come, but in particular, those suggested amendments are set out in detail at pages 2, 3, and 5 of our submission before you today.
The second aspect of the bill is the expansion of the powers of citizen's arrest. It's that aspect of the bill that the CBA does not support.
We're concerned that the bill may encourage citizens who are untrained in arrests to risk their own personal harm and risk liability for wrongful arrests. We know that arrestees are more likely to resist citizen's arrests than arrests by the police, and ordinary citizens are less likely to have a knowledge of physical controls or tactical communication to deal with individuals who actually resist those efforts of arrest.
We're also concerned that the changes will encourage unjustified arrests by private security personnel, who are not subject to public oversight in the same way that police agencies are. Such personnel often lack the necessary range of equipment or adequate training to safely and lawfully make arrests in a manner proportionate to the circumstances.
So it's a dual approach that we have to the bill today. We're excited and happy to support the long-awaited amendments to the law of self-defence. It's a welcome reform. On the other hand, or in our view, the changes to the law of citizen's arrest are just unnecessary, and in fact may put Canadians at further risk.
Thank you.