As I mentioned before, the legislation says that victims can receive specific types of information. The process would be that a victim would register with the board or the Correctional Service of Canada to receive information about the offender's sentence—length of sentence, eligibility dates, the review dates—and also they can attend our hearings. They can ask to observe our hearings. They can observe our hearings without presenting a statement. They can just be at the hearing and listen to the board members.
Again, it's an important process for them to understand the different types of questions that the board members ask the offender and understand the process. In advance of that, we have regional communications officers who contact the victims and work with the victims so they understand what that would entail. Again, in most instances, they'd have to attend the institution where the offender is located, so our RCOs would work them through that process and would be on hand and sitting with them throughout the hearing. Following the hearing, the officer would debrief with them to answer any questions about what the decision entailed and explain specific aspects of that.
Victims can also present statements at our hearings. Not all victims choose to do that, but some of them choose to write a statement. At any time the board will consider victim statements, and in addition to that, victims can present in person at our hearings. In those instances, victims will verbally provide their statements, or they can do it by audio recording or video recording if they don't feel comfortable with that.