Justice Committee on March 11th, 2021

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

It has always been the case that we were moving in that direction, simply because of the parameters of legal decisions—of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions—and it was always the case that we were going to study this very carefully.

I'm not sure, Mr. Cooper, that.... You call it a fait accompli, but I think we were moving in that direction, and we'll do it thoughtfully. Remember, we are parliamentarians. We have a responsibility to make sure adequate safeguards are in place. We know more about mental illness now than we did in the past. We know it's a serious illness, and we know that there are many advocates who believe that MAID should be available to people where mental illness is the sole and unique condition.

It is a difficult question. We're going to have to grapple with it, and we're going to have to grapple with a set of safeguards that protects those who are vulnerable and respects the challenges of mental illness and all those various things I raised in my speech in the House of Commons in November.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you, Mr. Cooper. That concludes your time.

Thank you, Minister Lametti.

We'll now go to Mr. Kelloway for five minutes.

Go ahead, sir.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

Hello, Minister. It's nice to see you again.

Minister, in my home province of Nova Scotia, more than one-third of women have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour at work. I'll just take two seconds to let that sink in for everyone: one-third. This is about twice as common as it is for men.

We would all agree that this statistic is completely unacceptable, so my question to you, Minister, is this. What kind of public legal education exists on matters related to workplace sexual harassment in the province of Nova Scotia?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

The short answer is “not enough”. We need to do more. That's what I hope we're doing with a number of different partnership and program offerings.

The first one I would cite is JPIP, the justice partnership and innovation program, which creates programming that helps educate with respect to the right to a safe workplace and the right to have fair treatment.

We've invested $1.7 million in British Columbia, for the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia, in order to improve access to justice for individuals who've experienced sexual harassment. Other programs focus on education, on allowing people to identify.... The Botler AI, for example, which will be available across Canada and around the globe, is a unique worldwide innovation to help people identify whether or not they are the victims of sexual harassment in the workplace.

We're moving in a number of different directions. We work with the Province of Nova Scotia in moving forward, and we'll continue to do that across the board.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, Minister.

I'm going to shift gears a bit here. This question actually comes from my time as a youth worker and working with youth in a variety of areas.

You know, and my colleagues know, that entry into the criminal justice system begins much earlier than adulthood, particularly due to the lack of social and economic supports. In my riding, we have some incredible community organizations that are working hard every day to ensure that the vulnerable youth in the area have the supports they need, quite frankly, to stay out of trouble.

I'm wondering how the federal government is addressing the needs of youth, particularly indigenous youth, who are involved in the child welfare and youth justice systems, and how we can proactively help prevent youth from graduating into the criminal system as adults.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you. Again, that's a great question.

Indigenous youth in particular often find themselves caught between the child welfare and the criminal justice systems, and oftentimes getting caught in the first means they will be lifers in the second. We have a youth justice fund in the Department of Justice to respond to youth justice issues and to enable the solution, which is more community participation in the youth justice system that's particularly aimed at reducing incarceration rates amongst indigenous Canadians.

For example, with an annual budget of $4.5 million, I'm supporting Ryerson University’s national indigenous courtworkers indigenous youth-centred justice project, or IYJP, which will work across the north, across a number of jurisdictions, to pilot innovative, community-based justice models. They will bring in multiple stakeholders and multiple sectors to work on collective and sustainable responses to address youth justice, precisely as you say, to keep people from graduating from the youth justice system into the criminal justice system.

The solutions that work are the ones that are based on the ground up, and that's precisely what the IYJP does.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you very much.

I have only 30 seconds.

Minister, I'm really encouraged by the answer in relation to partnering with grassroots organizations. I look at groups like the Whitney Pier youth club and the Glace Bay centre here in my riding, and indigenous groups as well, who have a desire to partner.

It's not a matter of partnerships; it's a matter of an investment, and I think we can make significant inroads into preventing that graduation that I spoke of and that you provided feedback on.

I'm really happy to hear those comments on that. Thank you so much.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Groups like the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia and the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies, again in Nova Scotia, do great work on the ground, and this is where we need to support people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move to Mr. Fortin for two and a half minutes.

Go ahead, sir.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

If you don't mind, Minister, I am going to follow up on the questions I asked earlier.

Ms. Drouin can provide further information regarding the figures.

Minister, you said you were always in contact with your provincial counterparts, including the one in Quebec. I have no reason to doubt you. I'm sure you are, but could you tell me the last time you spoke to your Quebec counterpart about the legal aid program, the victims fund and the budget cuts?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you for your question, Mr. Fortin.

I work with senior department officials, my deputy minister and my departmental assistants. We are in fairly regular contact with our partners on a number of issues, and that contact is important, especially during the pandemic.

We look for ways to provide and maintain legal services through—

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

You, personally, Minister, have you spoken to your Quebec counterpart about the transfers for legal aid and services for victims of crime?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you for your question.

I would have to look at the agenda because we cover many issues in our discussions.

As I said, we are in touch about technical issues—

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Minister, I have just a minute left. I don't mean to be impolite—

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

We had a conversation in December, so fairly recently.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Do you recall what they said to you about the reduced transfers for the legal aid program and the victims fund?

What did your Quebec counterpart say to you?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

I would have to look over the notes I took at the time.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

You don't know why the funding was reduced and you don't recall discussing it.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Remembering every discussion I had with every single one of my counterparts would be virtually impossible. We have many conversations, some at the deputy minister level. Let's be realistic, here.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I understand, Minister. I must say, though, that these issues strike me as rather important, so I would think you would remember discussing them, if only vaguely.

Nevertheless, I understand, so I'll ask your deputy minister.

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you.

That was an extra half minute for you, Mr. Fortin.

We'll now go to Mr. Garrison for two and a half minutes.

Go ahead, sir.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I know the minister is aware that during the pandemic we've seen a rise in hate crimes directed against Asian, Black and other racialized Canadians. We've seen the ongoing scourge of anti-Semitism at very high levels including in my own community. We [Technical Difficulty—Editor] very public graffiti, which the police dealt with very well, as did the volunteers who cleaned it up and the media, by not showing the images during that incident.

One of the things we lost under the previous Conservative government was section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which allowed the Canadian Human Rights Commission to take action on complaints about hate crimes. I'm wondering if the government has any plans to bring forward legislation to restore that section or a similar kind of section to the Canadian human rights code.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

The best source for that question is around you all the time. It's my parliamentary secretary, Arif Virani, whom I have tasked to work with Minister Steven Guilbeault and Minister Bill Blair with respect to the question of hate generally, whether it's online or not, and also with respect to the question of whether we reintroduce section 13 or some revised version of section 13.

Those studies and discussions are ongoing. I will leave it to my counterpart ministers and my parliamentary secretary to make an announcement at the appropriate moment. I can say that those discussions are very much ongoing and hopefully will lead to positive fruit. You've heard Minister Guilbeault already say that we plan to make some announcements with respect to hate and hate online. I will leave this to him.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Hopefully that day is soon.

I have a short amount of time here, but let me ask one more question.

Federal, provincial and territorial ministers of justice met in December of 2020 and had discussions about how to tackle the problem of racism in the Canadian justice system. One of the things that were discussed at those meetings was the lack of disaggregated data. I wonder if there is anything in your budget that is either going to fund federally or help the provinces—who have a lot of data we need—to compile that kind of disaggregated data, so we can get a picture of what's happening with the issue of race in the justice system.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

That's a critical question.

I believe there is funding for disaggregated data across the whole of government. It is something that a number of different ministers and ministries have put into place. We had been working already with Statistics Canada and the justice department to get better data. It's a larger, whole-of-government response. I can undertake to get back to you with specific numbers on that.

The pandemic hasn't exacerbated the problem, as the problem was there, but it has certainly put a more precise light on the need for better data and, in particular, disaggregated data.