Thank you for the question.
The first thing that should be said is that over time, Parliament had adopted a number of measures to enhance the capacity of victims to know about what was happening in regard to their case, and to have some rights to participate, but that was spread through the Criminal Code and some other statutes. One of the things that the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights did was to consolidate that. It also, if you like, underlined the importance of, for example, information sharing, which is what the question has focused on.
We are in the early stages of implementing the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights. The truth is that most of that implementation will roll out through provincial police forces and prosecution services and in provincial courts, which is where the vast majority of criminal matters are handled. There has been extensive training and information sharing with all of the jurisdictions to ensure that they're aware of what is in the Victims Bill of Rights, and we have an ongoing relationship with the provinces and territories to be able to continue to support them as questions arise around it.
I would say that, subject to comments from my colleagues, it's early for us to be able to assess the impact right now, because it is simply in the early days of rolling out. We do know that provinces and territories, through their prosecution services in particular, are giving effect to it, and it applies in respect of federal prosecutions as well. The way the division of workload works here, the vast majority of criminal matters are handled through provinces and territories. It is early days but we're confident that the measures are being implemented.
The last thing I would say is that there is a victims ombudsman. There are victims ombudsman types of offices in many provinces and territories, and there's a federal victims ombudsman. So there are outlets for individuals who don't feel that their rights have been respected, and we'll look to those ombudsmen, not just the federal one. At some point we'll hear, no doubt, from the federal victims ombudsman. It's an important and powerful office. That office and provincial offices do give victims who feel that their rights haven't been respected an outlet to raise concerns. We'll be monitoring those very carefully as well.