Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to all the witnesses. With the diversity of views they have expressed, their testimony is helping and guiding us as we study the bill.
I thank you for all your testimony and your diversity of ideas. Certainly the whole idea is to improve the bill.
My first question is for Ms. O'Sullivan. I've never seen a panel as Irish as this one.
I don't know, Madame Lebel, how you escaped the furor of the four-leafed clover, but in any event....
The Ministry of Justice held some extensive consultations, as you know, and what we heard from victims was that they wanted more protection; they definitely wanted more information; they wanted to be treated with respect; and they wanted to be treated with dignity. But they also expressed a lot of concern regarding delays. Delays do not help victims; there's no question about that. The dockets are loaded and time passes very quickly, particularly for a victim who's trying to heal.
That's another thing the witnesses told us, that basically the longer the procedures go on, the harder it is to close the book and the harder it is to start the healing process.
You mentioned in your testimony that there will be an internal complaints system for breaches of a victim's rights. Certainly that has to evolve. We don't know exactly where it will lead.
You also seemed to suggest that you wanted some sort of a system in which, in the case of a breach, the judge could be approached and spoken to by the victim. It seems that would inherently cause delays. I'll take you through a scenario: the investigation is going on; we've done the preliminary hearing; the victim believes there's a breach; the judge is setting the time, the date, and the place for the trial; the victim wants to raise some sort of a breach; and a special hearing takes place. So instead of the trial going forth, the special hearing trumps this and more time passes before the trier of fact gets to see what's going on in the case. What happens if, in the special decision, following a hearing of the victim's arguments on the breach, the victim doesn't like the decision? Is there an appeal? How long does this go forth before ultimately the trial is held instead of dealing with some sort of complaint on the victim's right before the judge rather than an internal system?
I just see it being another time factor of delay.