Absolutely, thank you.
There was a bill tabled by Laurel Collins from the NDP, Bill C-332, which had unanimous House support. It ended up in the Senate at second reading.
I'd like that bill to be resurrected. It's thorough. We've added stakeholders to it. I think everyone in this room would do well to resurrect that bill because that would make coercive control a crime. Coercive control is always present in abusive situations. That would give the police the grounds...because the problem is right now you have to wait until someone's bleeding before you can press any charges. That coercive control bill would help save lives before the blood gets drawn.
We also need an amendment to the Jordan rule. I know it was done in good faith, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Jordan rule needs a giant asterisk or a notwithstanding clause usage. We should not be timing out cases simply because we don't have the resources or it hasn't been funded properly. We should not be throwing them out. I think 30% of sexual assault cases get thrown out under the Jordan rule now. That's 30% more offenders who are just out on the street simply because we didn't get to go to court.
Section 278 of the Criminal Code is another one. In the current law, the defence counsel is able to subpoena all of the victim's hospital records, personal journals and anytime they've talked to anybody in law enforcement. They can subpoena the victim's entire life and weaponize it against them in the court—and they do that. Section 278 is something we need to look at.
Looking at bail, Jordan, Bill C-332 and section 278 would help at least give us a good place to start. We really ultimately need the court system to be trauma-informed and survivor-centred. Right now, it's the opposite.
I'll never move back to Canada, but it would be the most amazing thing for the country to all come together and say, we're going to do this, we get it. Canada is 20 years behind most developed nations.
I'd love it if you guys could just do it. We could all just get along, get this done and have a justice system that works so that we can have a safe country and have functioning citizens who contribute to the economy and have good lives.