Good afternoon, Madam Chair.
I would just like to underscore the level of victimization that the Duplessis orphans have endured. They were stolen from their biological parents, locked up in orphanages, and subjected to deprivation, as well as years of physical, psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse.
They were then thrown out of atrocious care facilities. No one knew quite what to do with them, so they were turned out in the street. And their victimization was never acknowledged. Why, then, were they compensated? To help them overcome poverty. Their victimization was never acknowledged. The Duplessis orphans are victims who have never been recognized as such.
And they appear before you today with some recommendations. The orphans committee has been working on them for some time, despite the fact that it has not received a cent. From time to time, we are given pennies to carry out specific projects, but nothing else. The orphans committee has no regular funding that it can use to assist victims as they try to help themselves.
The orphans committee is proposing that a victimology study, examining crimes that have actually been committed against victims, be conducted annually. It is important to determine the actual number of crimes suffered by victims, as compared with the number of reported crimes and those in which the perpetrator was prosecuted and convicted. Losses have occurred, and in order to know what they were, they need to be counted every year to determine if progress is really being made.
The second recommendation concerns the right to access information. The head of Quebec's professional association of journalists, Pierre Craig, criticized Quebec's access to information legislation, likening its restrictive nature to that of a prison. What's more, a victim has to pay for information that falls under federal jurisdiction. The government makes them pay for it.
The committee's third recommendation is to adopt a practice used in Europe. There, victims can take their complaint directly to the Crown prosecutor, given that so many of them are afraid of police. Valid or not, the fear of police remains. Why not allow victims or victims advocates to take their complaints right to Crown prosecutors?
The Comité des orphelins de Duplessis victimes d'abus is also concerned about the appeal mechanisms in the victims bill of rights. We understand that the goal is to simplify things for victims, but simplifying does not equate to doing nothing. Instead, it is a matter of knowing how many complaints have been filed, at every stage, how many were carried through till the end and how many victims gave up because they could not get time with the prosecutor, were too poor and lacked the necessary resources or came up against too many roadblocks.
Obviously, we welcome this bill of rights for victims, but it has its limitations. Mr. Landry, for example, is not considered a victim by any of the country's courts. Must he show every single time that he has been the victim of a crime? You will say, yes, he is a victim, but is it a crime to falsely diagnose someone as mentally ill? I think it is and I think you agree, but will a judge think the same way?
We are also worried about other victims. Would the proposed bill of rights apply to a Canadian who fell victim to a crime abroad? Would it apply to a foreigner who fell victim to a crime in Canada? It is simple questions like these that have yet to be answered. Our committee's primary focus is, of course, the Duplessis orphans, but we are also worried about other victims. The Duplessis orphans were horribly mistreated and have still not been recognized as the victims they are.