Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I also want to welcome our guests today.
I concur with what my colleague Mr. Harris has said, and I commend you, Mr. Kennedy, for your courage and commitment.
Professor Waller, I think we have a unique privilege in having a world leader, really, with respect to protecting victims of crime, protecting their rights, testifying before us today. Your central proposal, that Parliament should add a short amendment to Bill C-10 to create a permanent crime reduction board for Canada I think is a compelling one. I hope it will be adopted by this committee. As you put it, it would combine being tough on criminals with being tough on causes.
In your statement, you make this point:
If the federal government matched every additional dollar for prisons with an additional dollar for prevention and victim rights, Canada would have significantly fewer victims of crime and so would have alleviated harm to crime victims.
I agree with that statement and your proposal. But it appears to me that your proposal.... I understand that it presupposes, in effect, that Bill C-10 is going to be adopted, and, since it's going to be adopted, we should have an amendment as you have suggested. And that is correct.
I would just like to take you back one step and ask you whether Bill C-10 in its fundamentals, as it now exists...because some have said that this will end up incarcerating more people for longer periods of time, and we'll end up with more crime rather than less crime, with less justice rather than more justice.
Are there any other suggestions that you might make regarding Bill C-10 as it stands now that would fit with your model of an effective balance between enforcement, treatment, and prevention?