Mr. Chair, on behalf of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, I want to thank this committee for the opportunity to comment on this very important issue.
It's personally a privilege and a pleasure to once again appear before this committee. My name is Paul Burstein. I'm the immediate past president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, an association with over 1,200 criminal lawyers. We are one of Canada's largest specialist legal organizations. Like me and my colleague Ms. Dann, most of our members have regular contact with mentally ill people who, after falling through the cracks in our system of mental health, end up embroiled in the criminal justice system.
Personally, I've been working with mentally disordered offenders for over 20 years, since part XX.1 of the Criminal Code was first enacted. That legislation came into force on February 4, 1992. I became a lawyer three days later and have been working under that regime ever since. I've represented many mentally disordered offenders before the Ontario Review Board and on appeals to the courts of appeal against those dispositions.
For almost 20 years I've been part of a small roster of lawyers that the Ontario Court of Appeal appoints to assist it in dealing with mentally disordered offenders who have filed their own appeals against ORB dispositions. I've appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on a number of very important cases that have dealt with the subject matter of Bill C-54. I've taught courses dealing with mentally disordered offenders. Most important, like so many millions of Canadians, I'm a parent of a child who has long suffered from a major mental illness. I can well appreciate how families are also victims of mental illness in having to deal with the person afflicted with the mental illness and how they act out as a result of their illness.
My colleague Ms. Dann is a former clerk for the Supreme Court of Canada. She also works with a firm that does much work with mentally disordered offenders. She devotes much of her practice to that. On behalf of our association, Ms. Dann will make some brief comments on what our members believe this committee must consider before moving forward with Bill C-54. Then she and I will answer any questions the committee might have. We've left the clerk with some written submissions that further outline our submissions.
Ms. Dann.