Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, for allowing me to speak today.
I'm a personal injury lawyer and victim rights advocate. My law practice since 1992 in Ontario and 2007 in New Brunswick encounters victims of various crimes, including but not limited to assault, sexual crimes, and murder, on a daily basis. In my representation of these parties in the civil justice system, I give information and guidance daily concerning the involvement, or lack thereof, in the criminal justice system in Canada as a victim. Also, I come before you as the chairperson of Walk With Me Canada Victim Services, a front-line service organization to trafficked victims.
Candidly and honestly, there is no uniform bill which will satisfy all victims. I only speak for the victims I encounter in the two spheres mentioned above, and even in that case some of them would look for different provisions in a victims bill of rights.
As a general overview, I take the position that the bill strikes the appropriate balance among the rights of the victim, the rights of the accused, and the administration of justice in this country. In particular, it is my view that the bill looks at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the accused offender and for the first time looks at the rights of the victim of crime and places at least some emphasis on his or her right to gain information and to be heard before the criminal justice system in this country.
The overarching complement of this bill is that the provisions do not lengthen the criminal justice process. I tell you that uniformly and unilaterally victims indicate to me on a daily basis that they do not want a bill of rights, or any other piece of legislation for that matter, that lengthens the process by which the alleged offender is brought to justice and sentencing takes place. Efficiency and timeliness in the process is in order for those victims. I am told this will allow the true healing process to commence, and that is a very important component to the victims I represent on a daily basis.
It is my view that clauses 6, 7, and 8 are the cornerstones and stepping stones to a system that will start to show compassion, empathy, and respect for victims of crime in this country. In particular, subclauses 7(a) and 7(b) are germane to the success of this process.
One of the most common complaints raised by my clients and those involved with Walk With Me Canada is that they are not kept apprised of the investigation and the criminal proceedings. In other words, they are not alerted by the court system, being the arresting police force, the crown attorney, or the victim services office, of ongoing court dates, adjournments, and vital information to allow the victims themselves to decide on their own whether or not they would like to be part of the process on that day or future days. It's key that if they don't attend on one occasion, they're still kept apprised of the next occasion. That should be their choice, as I hear it from them, not the choice of a representative of the court system. It is most important to the people I serve that they be given the information and be allowed to make a decision themselves as to whether or not they attend and how they involve themselves in the criminal justice process.
I will share with you a story of a sexual assault victim who was assaulted in a community in Ontario in which she now does not reside. The alleged perpetrator is her former stepfather. The criminal charges are ongoing presently. I spent a lengthy period of time with this young woman and her biological father. Over and over again, the key piece of information that bothered this young woman was the fact that she had no access to the status of the criminal charges against her perpetrator, or the status of his attempt to change his bail conditions. In fact, she had so little information about the criminal justice system in general that she was afraid because she no longer lived in that community the accused person, with his power, would be able to negotiate the charges being withdrawn or in her words, ”they would disappear”.
I was there to gain information about whether she was going to commence a civil litigation case. In the two and a half hours I was with her, the overriding theme from this young 17-year-old woman to me over and over again was, "What if he goes down to the police station and tells them to withdraw the charges because I've left town because I don't care about this any more?" She told me that she and her biological father had both made numerous attempts to gain that information from various sources in the system, so I applaud subclauses 7(a) and 7(b) in the belief that if that information is actually carried out by the provincial authorities, the experience of this young woman in the future will not exist, or a lot fewer similar cases will exist in our system.
Accordingly, on behalf of the victims whom I have the privilege to interact with on a daily basis, I strongly support the clauses on the right to information, most importantly the right to timely and accurate information, in order that the victims may start to make their own choices about how they deal with the criminal justice system and their perpetrators.
The parts of the bill concerning the protection of the victim, in particular their identities, is also important to the people I serve. One of the ongoing themes and concerns is intimidation, particularly in the human trafficking world. A lot of human trafficked victims and sexual abuse and sexual assault victims are concerned about the requirement of being in a courtroom with the very person who breached their trust, intimidated them and took advantage of them through the system. Having the ability to be protected and not be intimidated in the process by the use of testimonial aids as an enshrined and guaranteed right, as opposed to requiring the crown attorney to bring a motion before the court, is an advancement of rights that I strongly support.
With respect to the participation section, it is my view that clauses 14 and 15 are a step in the right direction. Clause 14 is a very good step that allows the victim to participate in the ongoing proceedings outside the courtroom when plea bargains and arrangements for sentencing are being discussed. It would be very helpful if that clause were to set out a list with a minimum number of times where a party may or should be involved, for example, that their views at least be heard on the issue of the withdrawal of a charge, or a plea to a lesser but included offence, and of course, on sentencing. Here I pause. In the summary, paragraph (k), which I overlooked when I made my notes, will guarantee in the Criminal Code, hopefully under section 718, that sentencing principles will be amended to include that.
Clause 15 dealing with the victim impact statements is a positive development for victims in Canada. The use of a common victim impact statement and a community impact statement will certainly add to the use of victim impact statements. I am told by the victims I represent that the more tools they have, the better. If you simply give them a pen and a blank piece of paper, they're less likely to do a victim impact statement, so I applaud that there are provisions for a common victim impact statement. It may not be one size fits all, but it's certainly a document that I am told by the victims I represent will be of assistance in getting the ink flowing toward the victim impact statement.
Having a specific restitution order enshrined in the victims bill of rights will be of assistance to victims. For example, the court having the ability to assist in obtaining a civil judgment against a labour trafficker will, as I understand from the victims, allow them to regain some dignity and potentially provide some financial stability to restart their lives. It is trite to say that putting any streamline in the process that would allow the victim to recover financially from the devastation of a crime is a good thing.
The complaints process set out and known as the remedy section comprising of clauses 25 through 29 is also one that I support. Having the ability to complain to a body which has the right to remedy the infringement and/or the denial of the right under the victims bill of rights will, in my view, give the document some teeth.
It is my view that having the ability to complain to a body that has the duty, the power and the knowledge to remedy the infringement is a step in the right direction. I know that some of my colleagues and some of the people who testify would like a uniformed body, but as I understand the British North American Act and the Constitution of this country, it would be virtually impossible for a federal body and a federal piece of legislation to have any teeth against, for example, a municipal police officer who decided not to carry out his duties of informing that the offender had been let go on bail. It would be beautiful if we could do that, but by virtue of the legislation we have in this country right now and how we carry out the rule of law, that is virtually impossible in my view.
I anticipate that clause 27 will be somewhat controversial and some witnesses will want status in the criminal proceedings. As indicated at the commencement of my comments, the victims whom I represent and have interaction with through Walk With Me Canada do not want status, nor do they want to be involved directly in the criminal justice system with a lawyer as an official intervenor, or be given standing. The delay of the process is the paramount concern of the people that I represent.
I could go on about how I don't think that would work with the rule of law in our Constitution and our Charter of Rights. With the greatest respect to my profession, adding another lawyer's voice to each and every criminal proceeding is, perhaps, not consistent with the rule of law, but more importantly would bring the administration of justice to a grinding halt. The amount of time it takes at this moment to process a case borders on delay in many jurisdictions, and having the victim represented by a lawyer and allowed to make submissions at each and every turn of the case would, in my view, revictimize the person as they would be dragged through a more lengthy court proceeding.
The second question that would be asked on the right to counsel would be where the funding would come from, and, as Mr. Murie has indicated, if the provinces would like to move that along—because that's probably in their jurisdiction, provincial legal aid—there may be an ability to set up a system, but presently, the way we govern this country, it would be an impossibility. My respectful submission is that in the administration of justice, we would be hearing about Mr. Askov a lot more often in our court system than we would care to. There would be many more offenders going loose because the delay was too long.
Those are my submissions, that I think giving the victims the right to participate, to give information, and have a remedy for restitution are all appropriate steps in the right direction.