Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
The humane treatment of victims is of absolute, paramount importance to any civilized society. I have been working on and waiting for this for 15 years, and I'm here today to congratulate this government for initiating Bill C-32 and for recognizing the importance of providing protection to Canadian crime victims.
Today I am not going to deal with the minutiae of the bill, because I am so pleased that victims' rights are being considered, and my focus is to recognize its fundamental importance in Canadian society.
Victims' rights must never be subjected to the shifting influences of legislative majorities nor to any judicial assault or activism. They must be grounded in Canadian law to be applied equally across this country. The only way to truly achieve this is through an amendment to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Though, unfortunately, that is still some distance off in the future, Bill C-32 is a monumental leap forward in that direction.
Crime victims, as well as those accused, simply seek humane, fair treatment and balanced rights. They do not want handouts. They seek, as free citizens, to be empowered with rights and standing that no judicial or legislative authority can ignore or take away, rights that should be their Canadian birthright.
There are those who will question the emotional engine that fed this bill, but I'm sure that those individuals will concede that similar engines fed the campaign for the charter itself, and most legislators do not question the multiple, repeated cases of injustice and re-victimization witnessed each and every single day in Canada. They acknowledge them, but to date they have simply proposed to address them with statutory reform or rights or statements of principles that impart no legal rights for crime victims.
Bill C-32 is a beginning.
The very foundation of our justice system depends upon the voluntary cooperation of victims to report the crimes committed against them and to testify truthfully when called upon. Mistrust of the system and the overwhelming belief that it is unjust have already started to cripple the nation's confidence in its courts. This is a very dangerous consequence for Canada, a consequence far more dangerous than is creating rights for victims of crime.
The protections defined by Bill C-32 are the very kinds of rights with which our charter is typically and properly concerned, and those are the rights of individuals to participate in all those government processes that affect their lives.
Those who argue that victims' rights don't require definition are simply condemning victims to perpetual re-victimization and second-class citizenship. Throughout the evolution of our justice system, victims have been transformed into a group oppressively burdened by a system that was originally designed to protect them.
Today we witness the genesis of this redress through Bill C-32. I have had discussions with experts on the psychological effects of crime, and they conclude that the failure to offer victims a chance to participate in criminal proceedings can and does result in increased feelings of inequity, with a corresponding increase in crime-related psychological harm. There is overwhelming evidence that having a voice will improve a victim's mental condition and welfare even though they know and understand that their participation may not change the outcome.
A justice system that fails to recognize a victim's right to participate threatens secondary harm, harm inflicted by the operation of a process and beyond that already caused by the criminal act. This alone should give us cause to define victims' rights to minimize insult to the already criminally inflicted injury. Additional or secondary trauma stems from the fact that victims perceive the system's resources to be devoted almost entirely to the accused, and little remains for those who have sustained harm at the offender's hands. Bill C-32 will not eliminate that trauma, but it will go a long way to creating better and clearer understanding and acceptance by those who are victimized by crime.
lt must be emphasized that Bill C-32 is not an assault on the fundamental rights of the accused. There are vague assertions that offender rights will be undermined, and these assertions have little value other than to inflame this debate. Justice and the rights of Canadian citizens are not a zero-sum game. The rights proposed by Bill C-32 do not subtract from those rights already established for offenders. They merely add to the body of rights that all Canadians should enjoy.
I've heard some say that the costs of Bill C-32 will be enormous. These arguments are totally illegitimate. The reality is that the cost will be mere pennies on the dollar compared with what we spend for the rights of criminal defendants. It is simply a cost that society must be willing to bear.
Studies have shown that, by a vast majority, where a victim is told the reasons for a plea agreement in advance, they support the position. They want a conviction. My experience from other venues shows that when victims are consulted in advance, knowing that crown attorneys have the final decision but that their input is actually valued, the crown will generally have the support of the victims. This will strengthen the crown's position, both in court and in the eyes of the public, since most victims will support the crown's position on a plea when they understand the reasoning behind it. It should be an instant shield against public criticism.
I've heard it said that Bill C-32 could lead to unrealistic burdens on courts and crown attorneys. The charter has established rights for the accused that lead to burdens on the courts and crowns, and yet no one is complaining that those rights should not have been created or should be overruled. There is no legal, rational, or moral basis for why victims should suffer an inferior status in our laws and in our courts.
Justice often requires burdens to be borne. Currently the burden of injustice imposed on victims is far greater than any administrative burden that might theoretically befall the courts. Nothing in Bill C-32 makes a victim an additional party in a criminal trial. The fact that a victim is present and may be heard at critical stages does not increase the power of the state, nor does it diminish or infringe upon the rights of the accused. Bill C-32 simply does not give the victim an independent right to speak at trial or before the jury. These fears to the contrary are unfounded.
Some have suggested that there is no pressing need for victims rights, as virtually every right provided by Bill C-32 can be or is already protected in existing legislation and the charter itself. Statutory rights or principles impart no legal right to crime victims, nor any measure of accountability within the justice system. Further, existing laws and statements of principles have failed despite the victims movement that's in their interest.
Placing victims rights in the charter—this is something that I will keep pushing until I don't have any breath left—is the only way to create respect for the rights of victims and to make them part of the sovereign instrument of the whole people. I've heard it said that considerable progress has been made with respect to victims rights in Canada over the years, but considerable progress remains elusive in Canada. The daily injustices done to victims, and that continue, are neither acceptable nor trivial. Over the last few decades, I've witnessed the erosion of basic human rights for crime victims in Canada.
My singular concern today is and will continue to be that the rights and protections created in Bill C-32 will always take a back seat to the charter rights of the accused.
Thank you.