Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Ms. Thomas and Mr. Roebuck. Thank you so much for your appearance today to help us in this important study.
I'm going to try to balance my questions with respect to both witnesses. It really depends on the timing. I know I have only six minutes.
I'll go first to you, Mr. Roebuck. I want to personally congratulate you on your appointment to this particular role. It is a role that is so vastly important to victims in this country of ours from coast to coast to coast. I would be remiss if I did not highlight the fact that this particular position was left vacant for close to 13 months, notwithstanding the cries from the official opposition and other members of the House of Commons to fill it, because there was a need for victims to be heard.
As you have indicated in previous testimony—I've done a little bit of research—there is a real disconnect in terms of equality in the criminal justice system between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victims. You have opined specifically with respect to section 15 and section 28 of the charter, how there is that particular imbalance. It's so important to have you here filling this particular role. It would have been so helpful to have your knowledge and your background when we studied Bill C-5, and also when we studied, most recently, victims' rights with respect to participating in the criminal justice system.
That being said, I want to give you an opportunity to perhaps expand on some of the recommendations that you spoke about. As a former Crown attorney, I am so acutely aware of the abysmal statistics we have in terms of successful prosecutions in this country. It stems from a lack of reporting. It stems from a lack of knowledge of rights. It stems from a lack of trust that the victims have with police authorities, with participants in the criminal justice system. You yourself have opined that there was a great deal of misinformation that was largely alarmist the moment the Supreme Court of Canada released the decision.
I'd like to hear from you, sir, as to the particular steps your office is taking to perhaps assuage some of these fears and some of the concerns that victims have, particularly as they relate to the Supreme Court of Canada decision and the government's response with the passing of Bill C-28.