We have a treason provision in the Criminal Code. This is not because treason happens all the time but because when it does it's incredibly serious. Non-disclosure has been identified, in many cases, as the primary reason for wrongful convictions in pretty much every wrongful conviction study in this country and elsewhere. Just this summer in the U.K., a committee very similar to this one did a study. The House of Commons justice committee in the U.K. did a major inquiry into a bunch of disclosure problems that led to hundreds of cases being stayed or withdrawn. Alison Saunders, their director of public prosecutions, testified before the committee that people had been imprisoned because of failures in disclosure.
This has tremendously tragic impacts on people's lives, and it continues to happen. I cite in my brief a case that I just finished up. I got a verdict in January on a triple homicide. Justice Dawson of the Ontario Superior Court in Brampton found non-disclosure, cover-ups, and perjury. This is unusual—don't get me wrong—but when it does happen, the officers involved shouldn't be promoted, and guess what. They were. This was at Peel Regional Police. I won't name the officers. They're all named in the decision, and the decision is cited in my brief. The major officers were all promoted within that service. That can't continue.