Justice Committee on March 25th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

And where are you putting “among other factors”?

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

I will read it in French: When a court imposes a sentence for an offence under section 467.111, the court shall consider as an aggravating circumstance, among other factors, any evidence establishing that the offence was committed against a person under the age of eighteen years near a school or a community centre.

What's the equivalent expression in English?

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Among other factors.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

Or the English expression that would apply

“as an aggravating circumstance”.

I didn't hear any of my colleagues across the way object to making these factors aggravating circumstances.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Mr. Seeback, you wanted to speak to the subamendment about adding “among other factors”.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Brampton West, ON]

Here's my problem. I like the subamendment. It's helpful. But I think a clever defence lawyer is going to look at this and see “near a school or a community centre” as an aggravating circumstance, but in a school or in a community centre is not, and therefore they will argue to a judge that this should not be an aggravating factor.

I have lots of respect for criminal defence lawyers. They are a smart bunch. This is why.... I live with a crown prosecutor, so that's different.

My point is, if we're going to do it, it should mirror language that's very broad and encompassing that we already have in the Criminal Code, and this doesn't do that.

The subamendment, in my estimation, doesn't help enough.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Is there anything else to add to the subamendment?

(Subamendment negatived)

(Amendment negatived)

(Clause 9 as amended agreed to)

(Clauses 10 and 11 agreed to)

(On clause 12)

Now we're on to clause 12, which does have G-4, an amendment. It adds “alleged to have”, making the assumption that you're not guilty until you're proven guilty, I guess.

Is that the difference, Mr. Goguen?

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

This is another consequential amendment that deals with French and English versions. It's proposed that the English version of clause 12 would be amended to fix an existing discrepancy between the English and French versions of the Criminal Code.

This would involve adding the words “alleged to have been committed” to reflect the current wording of the French version of the Criminal Code. It's further proposed that the French version of clause 12 of the bill be amended to ensure consistency with the existing language of the Criminal Code. Specifically, clause 12 of the bill proposes to amend paragraph 486.2(5)(a) of the Criminal Code, testimonial aids, and it proposes to amend existing Criminal Code language in the French by changing présumé avoir été commise with censément.

There's more. Clause 14 proposes, and this also affects....

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

No. That's all for this amendment.

Are there any questions on the amendment to that wording change to have French/English say the same thing?

(Amendment agreed to)

(Clause 12 as amended agreed to)

We've already amended clause 13.

(Clause 13 as amended agreed to)

(On clause 14)

Clause 14 is G-6.

Mr. Goguen, do you have any comments?

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

It's the same change as in clause 12, but it's a change to subparagraph 515(6)(a)(ii) of the Criminal Code.

The term proposed by the bill, censément, is not an appropriate concept of the criminal law, and therefore we proposed the phrase présumément avoir été commise be retained in both sections. This would ensure that consistency between the French and English languages be maintained.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Very good.

Are there any other comments on that amendment?

(Amendment agreed to)

(Clause 14 as amended agreed to)

(Clauses 15 to 17 inclusive agreed to)

Shall the title, which has been amended by G-7, carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Shall the bill as amended carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Shall the chair report the bill as amended to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Shall the committee order a reprint of the bill as amended for the use of the House at report stage?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Thank you very much. That is the bill for today.

I just want to comment before we break. On Wednesday we're dealing with another private member's bill. We have witnesses. On Bill S-209, we have the mover from the Senate, and he can only be here for half an hour. The mover or supporter from the House is coming for the first half hour. So try to be focused on that. Then we have a witness—and we only have one witness—for a maximum of an hour. Then there's only one clause. It's a long one, but there's only one, so I left a half an hour to deal with that.

Then we're on a two-week break from here, back to our ridings, which I know we will enjoy. Happy Easter to everybody who celebrates Easter.

This is what we will do when we get back. In the first week back we will deal with Bill C-444, which is the impersonating a police officer private member's bill. We'll have the mover, then we'll do witnesses, and then we'll try to do clause-by-clause, if we can, that week.

In the second week I'm hoping we will do the Criminal Code official languages three-year review of section 533.1, which deals with being able to have your court case in both official languages. It's a requirement of this committee to look at how it's gone for the last three years. It's a three-year review. We will be inviting, obviously, the minister's officials to come and talk to us about how it's going. If you have any witnesses for that, it would be great.

If you have any witnesses for next week's bill on impersonating police officers, please give it to the clerk as soon as possible, because it's going to be hard to chase you down when we're back in the ridings. It's much easier when you're here.

Then, for the last two weeks of the four-week section that we're in, I'm hoping we will see whether Bill C-54 gets referred to the committee from the House, and we'll deal with that legislation for at least those two weeks is my guess. We have a large witness list already started for Bill C-54, so we'll see what the committee decides in terms of length for that.

At this point, those are the next two weeks when we come back, and you know what's happening on Wednesday.

With that, thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.