Justice Committee on Oct. 29th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Is there any discussion?

Mr. Fraser.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Just to point out that Mr. Cooper says it's a nominal amount. It is an increase of 25%.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Sorry, it's 25% but I kept saying $25. However, $25 is 25%.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Yes, but 25% in my view wouldn't be nominal.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

If you increased something from one dollar to two dollars, it would be doubled. Again, we're talking about a relatively small amount.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I just wanted to challenge the word “nominal”, that's all. Thank you.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

I've never been good at....

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

It's all good. You're good at a lot of other things.

We'll have a vote on CPC-117.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 304 agreed to)

(Clauses 305 to 309 inclusive agreed to on division)

In clause 310, amendment X-152 is consequential, and therefore it doesn't move forward because clause 319 was not defeated.

(Clauses 310 to 312 inclusive agreed to on division)

(On clause 313)

On clause 313, we have Liberal-19.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

Bill C-75 proposes amendments to the bail regime to streamline and modernize...including its documents, and clause 313 amends sections 763 to 768 of the Criminal Code to reflect these changes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

How long are the bells? Are they 30 or 15 minutes?

Folks, we have much less than 30 minutes left of this bill. All the rest of the amendments are nominal, technical amendments. We haven't done our four hours. Can I ask everyone to come back after the votes? It will take less than 30 minutes, I promise you, because we have only technical amendments left, essentially. Is that all okay?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you, everyone, again so much. We'll see you after the votes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

We are reconvening our meeting on Bill C-75 clause-by-clause consideration. Again I want to thank the staff, the members of the Justice team, the members of the committee and everyone who's here on all sides for your incredible patience to get through this.

We have very little left. We should be finished in the next 25 minutes.

We were on LIB-19. It had been moved, but I had not called the vote on LIB-19.

Does anybody wish to speak to Lib-19? Mr. Hehr had already spoken to it and explained it.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 313 as amended agreed to)

(Clause 314 agreed to on division)

(On clause 315)

That moves us to LIB-20 in clause 315.

Mr. McKinnon.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Bill C-75 proposes amendments to streamline and modernize the bail regime, including its documents. Clause 315 amends the schedule to part XXV of the Criminal Code to reflect these changes. In doing so, it inadvertently added the term “undertaking” to the document, over which the Ontario Court of Appeal has jurisdiction.

The proposed amendment would remove the term “undertaking” to maintain the current state of the law.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 315 as amended agreed to)

(Clauses 316 to 320 inclusive agreed to on division)

Then we have the proposal for a new clause 320.1, for which there are three options. As we discussed before, the committee asked that two options be prepared related to section 802.1 of the Criminal Code, and then there's LIB-21, which is another option for new clause 320.1, which would be, again, an amendment to section 802.1 of the act.

Since X-153 and X-154 were submitted first, only one could be adopted because they would contradict one another. Does any committee member wants to move either X-153 or X-154?

Not seeing anyone, we'll move to LIB-21.

Mr. Boissonnault.

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

This addresses the issue of allowing agents to appear in summary conviction proceedings where the maximum term of imprisonment is greater than six months, in a case where the agent is authorized under a program under the lieutenant governor in council of the province, or the accused is a corporation.

In the first place, this amendment would give provinces and territories the power to establish criteria governing agent appearances—law students, articling students, paralegals—in addition to their current power to approve programs.

Second, it would allow any person to appear for adjournments on any summary conviction.

I believe this addresses the issue we had with those members of the legal system not being able to participate, so I'm putting forward this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Could the members of the justice panel talk about the consultations with the provinces on this issue and where the provinces are with respect to moving forward to designate either programs or people?

[Carole Morency, Director General and Senior General Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Policy Sector, Department of Justice]

The issue has been discussed through FPT forums leading up to the introduction of Bill C-75 and since, as a result of criticism being raised after the tabling of the bill. They're still working through this issue from their perspective in the sense that they now have the power under section 802.1 to create and adopt a program.

A number of years ago there had been support through FPT forums to do something very similar to what this motion proposes in a bill that had been introduced but had not advanced. We remain hopeful that this will provide sufficient flexibility to provinces and territories going forward if they want to adopt a formal program, as some do now, for example, for indigenous court workers, or if they want to go with something that's less onerous and adopt criteria that will enable them to move forward with this.

We've talked about the timing, about how they may be able to do that. The committee will know that provision would come into force 90 days after royal assent, so there would be time for them to make some choices. Of course, in the interim we will continue to discuss with our PT counterparts, based on how the bill proceeds through Parliament.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Does anybody have any comments? Not hearing any, we'll move to the vote.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clauses 321 to 328 inclusive agreed to on division)

(On clause 329)

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

On clause 329, we have LIB-22.

[James Maloney, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Lib.]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

By now I think everybody is well acquainted with the purpose of Bill C-75, so I won't go through that again.

Clause 329 is amending subsection 828(3) of the Criminal Code. However, the proposed subsection incorrectly no longer refers to “recognizance” and this amendment proposes to remedy that and put the word back in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Is there any discussion on this?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 329 as amended agreed to)

(Clause 330 agreed to on division)

(On clause 331)

We now move to LIB-23.

Ms. Khalid.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you.

Bill C-75 proposes amendments to streamline and modernize the bail regime, including its documents. Clause 331 amended the schedule to part XXVII to reflect these changes. A reference to “undertaking”, which deals with fees that summary conviction courts or justices may charge, has been incorrectly added in item 8 of the schedule, and this amendment would remove that term, “undertaking”, from there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Is there any discussion on LIB-23?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 331 as amended agreed to)

(Clause 332 agreed to on division)

(On clause 333)

We now move to LIB-24.

Mr. McKinnon.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Clause 333 amends form 5.03, which should have replaced the term “offender” with “person” to more accurately reflect individuals who may be subject to the order in this form. The word “offender” should be replaced with the word “person”. That's what this amendment does.