Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, my name is Vince Westwick, and I'm the general counsel for the Ottawa Police Service. I appear this morning representing Chief Vern White and the Ottawa Police Service. Chief White would have appeared himself, but he is currently in China lecturing on law enforcement matters.
In preparing to present comments to this committee, I sought input from operational police officers, those who investigate the types of offences that are the subject of Bill C-10. They were most supportive. While it is easy for me to report the strong views of the members of the Ottawa Police Service, it is important to understand their thinking on why they believe this bill is important. It is more than a simple plea for longer sentences. It is about ensuring that there is accountability within the criminal justice system. It is about revitalizing confidence in the criminal justice system, confidence for the community, confidence for the victims, and confidence for police.
When police officers in Ottawa encourage victims to come forward and submit to the rigours of the criminal justice system, it is important for the victims to feel the system will be responsive to the pain they have suffered. It is important for police officers in Ottawa standing up before a town hall meeting that they are able to tell communities that the system will protect them and their families. It is also important to police officers to believe that their efforts in investigating and assisting in the prosecution of crime are worthwhile.
Community confidence needs a shot in the arm. The 140-plus pages of Bill C-10 send an important message about safety, but they also send an equally important message about community confidence in the criminal justice system.
I'd like to make a few comments about the specifics within the bill.
Regarding conditional sentences, when a judge has decided that an offender should be sent to jail, the judge may impose a conditional sentence, allowing the offender to serve his sentence in the community—house arrest. Under the current legislation, conditional sentences are available except for a very small group of serious offences. Bill C-10 is decreasing the availability of conditional sentences by increasing the range of offences for which conditional sentences are excluded. While there may be a justification for a person serving his or her sentence in the community, there is no justification for a conditional sentence where the serving of that sentence affects the safety of that community. This reduction in the availability of conditional sentences will increase public confidence in the criminal justice system.
In respect of mandatory minimum sentences, MMPs have caused a lot of controversy. The starting point of the discussion should be section 718.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada. That section sets out criteria for addressing aggravating and mitigating circumstances that judges must consider in imposing a sentence. These sections were introduced in 1995 and have been used extensively by trial judges since then. Bill C-10 takes that process one step further by attaching a predetermined sentence to aggravating factors—not for all crimes, but for those related to sexual offences involving children, and for serious drug offences.
The staff sergeant in charge of the Ottawa Police sexual assault and child abuse section wrote to me the following:
We can't say enough about the need to put the increased penalties in place. The current mandatory sentencing for sexual interference...sexual exploitation...and invitation to sexual touching...is 45 days with a 10-year max (that is never used). It is our view that 45 days doesn't even touch the surface of what is required to send a message of determent. Most of the time upon conviction these offenders are getting out for time served and go right back at it. One case we are...involved in...allowed for a male involved in possession and sharing child pornography to go right back into the community (after conviction) where he continued and escalated to luring--our [high-tech crime and] Internet Child Exploitation Team is now investigating the luring of over 100 young females. Harsher sentencing is required to stop these predators.
That's from the officer in charge of the sexual assault and child abuse team.
Critics of Bill C-10 argue that it is better to focus on preventative strategies than to focus solely on MMPs. The Ottawa police do not think these strategies are mutually exclusive. For example, Chief White indicated his support for mandatory minimum sentences related to drug offences, but asked me to specifically convey to this community that any MMP strategy needs also to increase the availability of treatment in a correctional facility.
He refers to the Swedish model as an example of a positive step in that regard.