Yes, Mr. McKinnon, I would love to answer that question.
I can tell you that in addition to my role as a criminal defence lawyer, I also work extensively with marginalized communities in the non-profit sector in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, so I have very close dealings with many individuals who are highly marginalized. It makes me uncomfortable—not only as a lawyer but as a Canadian citizen and as a human—to think about this two-tier system, whereby a complainant who is privileged, has a good income, has support, perhaps of his or her family, and has all the advantages in life to hire a lawyer, can access counsel, receive legal advice, and get better representation.
That's wonderful, but when you put that into the reality of the world, we have marginalized people who disproportionately fall victim to sexual assault. The mere perception that they aren't going to access the same kind of representation in the judicial system—let alone the practical reality of it—in my view, is enough to deter them from even coming forward, let alone their experience with the system itself, feeling further disenfranchised, further marginalized.
Yes, it is an action, but it's an action that has to be accessible to every complainant. Again, practically speaking, I don't see how we can use the public purse to adequately fund that when we're seeing legal aid programs being so underfunded. I have a lot of problems with how that's going to be implemented, and a lot of concerns about how people who are less advantaged will experience the system.