Thank you for the invitation to appear before this committee on the government's obligations to victims of crime.
It's good to be doing this after the federal government finally appointed a qualified and energetic federal ombudsman for victims of crime, but this appointment is a long way from enough to meet the obligations to victims of crime and standards equivalent to what has existed for some time in other comparable democracies. I've set these out in my book, and I will leave one copy of it. The book is Rights for Victims of Crime: Rebalancing Justice.
The book identifies a series of fundamental rights—if you like, obligations for victims of crime—and shows how police can be first in aid, services can help victims to cope and recover, reparation can restore and victims can be heard. As you've heard, they're not always well heard in our parole system. A comprehensive model and budget are in the book and could be very influential with regard to what I'm going to propose.
The book also asserts that the prevention of crime before it happens is as important as rights for victims. Indeed, today we have the knowledge that we could reduce victimization in Canada through both property and violent crime by 50% in the next few years, and this would be consistent with Canada's commitment to the UN sustainable development goals. My book, Science and Secrets of Ending Violent Crime, sets this out, using proven strategies from other democracies and sometimes even from Canada.
Every year, millions of Canadians are of crime, suffering losses, trauma and a lot more. Cumulatively, these tangible and intangible losses are estimated to be in the tens of billions. Unfortunately, we continue more of the same and, as such, do not get different results.
We allow violent and property crime because we fund short-term projects in pilot areas instead of sustained and adequate investments in smart prevention, where they're most needed. The services and justice after the victimization exist some of the time in some of the provinces for some of the victims, but they're generally not consistent across Canada or adequate to meet enough of the needs.
The current groups in the federal bureaucracy and the bill of rights are totally inadequate for what is needed. The units in the bureaucracy are too low and rarely have the skills needed. They certainly don't have funds or a mandate. In sum, we need a “prevention and victim justice services Canada”, not just a Correctional Service of Canada. I'm going to propose that.
I'm recommending that you look at developing legislation and funding federally so that victims of crime in Canada can have effective policies to prevent victimization and be provided services and justice after the victimization. These must be consistent across Canada and comparable to what exists in other democracies.
I'm recommending a crime prevention and victim justice act. It would establish an office for crime prevention and victim justice, headed by a deputy minister and reporting to the Minister of Justice and/or the Minister of Public Safety. Clearly, it has to work in collaboration with the provinces, territories and indigenous leaders. The federal government must provide this office annually with the equivalent of 10% of what it's currently spending on policing, courts and corrections. Half of that funding would go to prevention and the other half would go to improving services.
The office would develop national standards—which we need—train officials and others, fund research and development and ensure that data collection is focused on results. What gets measured gets done. It would also share costs, so that provinces, territories and indigenous leaders could expand their own planning and implementation of effective prevention, services, reparation and other components of victim justice.
The act would also legislate the role of the federal ombudsman, which would be strengthened and would report to Parliament with an annual budget similar to that of the correctional investigator.
I'm recommending that you go for it and make a difference to how victims are protected through prevention and how their basic rights are met through funding, legislation and leadership, which come from the federal government.
Thank you.