Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to make another plea that we should trust our judges.
This clause seeks to preserve judicial discretion in the timing of restitution payments, as was recommended to us by what I thought was a highly respected organization, the Canadian Bar Association.
The bill requires a court to specify the dates that restitution payments shall be made and whether that's in one payment or in installments. However, a victim cannot enforce a civil order as long as the offender is under the restitution order. This could have the effect of potentially delaying compensation. The specificity of this provision could also offer false hope, and there is absolutely no good reason to limit the discretion of our judges in this respect.
This amendment would simply preserve judicial discretion and adopt the advice we received from the Canadian Bar Association in their testimony before us.