Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Criminal Lawyers' Association has had the privilege of appearing before this committee many times, and I thank you for the invitation to discuss this bill.
Let me just say at the outset that victims are not an abstract concept to criminal lawyers. We know the victims are real. We know that their struggles in the criminal justice system are real. Indeed, the CLA takes no issue with many aspects of this bill. Many of the rights set out in the bill simply codify what really are best practices for prosecutors in dealing with complainants, witnesses, and victims.
That said, there are three aspects of this bill that, I'd respectfully suggest, require some closer consideration.
First, I just want to address a broad point, and in some ways I think I'm going to echo what Mr. Tremblay and Ms. Walker said. One of the most conspicuous features of this bill is increased participation for witnesses and complainants by being able to bring a variety of applications in the course of a criminal proceeding, applications that at present are generally brought by crown prosecutors, often at the request of a witness or a complainant.
The concern that I have is about adding procedural steps to what is already a strained justice system. I'd respectfully suggest that we ought to all give some thought to what I would say is perhaps one of the worst strains on everybody involved in the justice system, which is the glacial pace of litigation in this country. Trials, we know, take years to complete. We know that puts an extraordinary strain on witnesses, on victims or complainants in cases, and certainly on accused persons, who live under the shadow of criminal proceedings.
The reason is not that accused people have too many rights or that trials are somehow too fair. Courts and litigants struggle to do the best they can within a justice system that strains under the weight of the demands it faces. We're here today, I suppose, to focus on the plight of victims of crime. I'll say for my part, I can hardly imagine the agony a family member or a victim of a crime has to endure waiting years and years and years for the conclusion of a case. We have a system that, I would suggest, can do much better. What we need is perhaps not more laws, but more funding for courts and litigants to move litigation along. That's something that I would suggest would benefit everybody involved in the criminal justice system.
The second point I want to make concerns a very specific provision, clause 17 of this bill, amending the Criminal Code. If I leave you with only one point today, I hope it will be to ask you to take some serious consideration of this provision. I read it and, quite frankly, I'm a little confused by it and a little concerned. I have no doubt that everybody here believes in fair trials, and yet there's a provision in this bill that I have trouble making sense of. I notice that there's no legislative summary of the bill, which is initially where I went to try to find some clarification.
This provision seems to add a new section to the Criminal Code that seems to allow for witnesses to testify anonymously. That is of grave concern to my organization. It's no exaggeration to say that this is a significant departure from the standards of Canadian justice that we've come to expect. Some might say it resembles more “star chamber” justice. The idea that a witness would not be protected from publication of their identity or protection, potentially, from being cross-examined by the person who may have been accused of the crime is one matter. This is a situation where it seems to suggest that the identity of a witness could be prevented from being disclosed, it seems to anybody, and that seems to include the accused.
I'm not sure if I'm reading the provision right. I hope I'm not reading it right. But it's hard to imagine a more fundamental change to Canadian law, one less consistent with Canadians' visions of open, fair justice, where everybody has a chance to a fair trial, where they can make full answer and defence and confront the witnesses against them.
I hope that my reading of this provision is wrong. If it is, then perhaps the provision could be rewritten for a little bit of clarity. If it's right, then I would respectfully suggest that some serious consideration ought to be given to it.