Thank you for the invitation to appear before you on Bill C-10.
I speak on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association, which, as many of you know, is a national association of over 37,000 lawyers, notaries, law students, and academics. Our mandate includes seeking improvements in the law and in the administration of justice. Our national criminal justice section represents a balance of crown prosecutors and defence lawyers from across Canada, and the positions we will present to you today represent our consensus on Bill C-10.
I practise criminal law in Vancouver as both a defence lawyer and a crown prosecutor. With me today is Professor Michael Jackson, a member of the section's committee on imprisonment and release, and one of Canada's most prominent experts on prison law.
I am afraid I must begin by expressing our disappointment that we have been given a mere five minutes to address such a complicated and important piece of legislation. This is entirely insufficient to provide meaningful feedback on these proposals that represent a significant shift in Canada's criminal justice and penal policy.
We also object to the process of lumping these profound changes into one bill, as many of them have received no previous committee review and will get little attention in the midst of nine important proposals. It is, in our respectful view, undemocratic.
In addition to our concerns about process, we believe that the substance of this legislation will ultimately be self-defeating and counter-productive if the goal is to enhance public safety.
The bill takes a flawed approach to dealing with offenders at all stages of their interaction with the criminal justice system, from arrest, through to trial, to their placement in and treatment by correctional institutions, and to their inevitable reintegration back into society. It represents a profound shift in orientation from a system that prioritizes public safety through individualized sentencing, rehabilitation, and reintegration, to one that puts punishment and vengeance first.
The measures contained in Bill C-10 will see more Canadian youth incarcerated while waiting for their trials. They will see more matters go to trial due to the harsh and unavoidable jail sentences associated with many offences, and they will see fewer reformed or rehabilitated offenders leave our correctional institutions and try to reintegrate into society.