Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Fry, for your advocacy on this bill.
I was just thinking about another line of questioning that I wanted to pursue with you. It's in relation to law enforcement generally.
I don't know if you are aware of this, but my previous background was in Crown prosecutions. I can inform you that my jurisdiction has a number of homes that would cater to vulnerable adults. I've heard numerous tales of abuses, and on a piecemeal basis, various social workers or parental workers would be charged under the existing regime in the Criminal Code.
I know that your bill takes it one step further and takes a look at actual managers and potential owners, but the impression I've always had—I'm looking at the pandemic and all the examples of abuse from coast to coast to coast—is that there still appears to be a general reluctance with policing to lay Criminal Code charges in relation to any extreme cases of abuse when the evidence is there, witnesses have come forward and sometimes pictures are taken. The police will have ample tools before them, yet they will choose not to pursue any sort of relief under the Criminal Code.
My question to you is very, very simple. In terms of the stakeholders that you may have consulted with when you started working on drafting this bill, did you take a look at policing in general and ask them that specific question on why there has been and continues to be a reluctance to hold individuals accountable for this extreme abuse to the vulnerable members of our population?