Justice Committee on June 15th, 2026

[Evie Ali]

Typically, in terms of the most common situation we encounter, our community is often victimized by other communities, by individuals coming from other communities. We are not looking at neighbour-on-neighbour crime as often as we are looking at intercity crime. That really has a ripple effect. I think it's more impactful than neighbour-on-neighbour crime, which is typically your pettier crime. People can step forward and move forward from that. The things we're seeing in our community are leaving lifelong, lasting impacts, and then, when we talk about having individuals in these situations, it keeps them where they're at.

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Do those folks who presumably come from other communities often share an addiction component of their own?

[Evie Ali]

From our experience as a frontline agency, when we look at Bill C-238, we're looking at organized crime and drug dealers who are coming in and profiting off our marginalized community, and not at our marginalized community.

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Do you anticipate that you would be able to satisfy a judgment against a drug dealer?

[Evie Ali]

I don't believe it would happen every time, but I believe there is ample opportunity for those outcomes.

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

You would be prepared—

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much, Mr. Baber. We are out of time for you.

We are moving on to Ms. Begum for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Good morning. I'll start with Evie and then go to Cristina.

Thank you so much for being here. Last year, I remember, you were facing budget cuts and a lot of layoffs. If I'm not mistaken, you had to have fewer staff and fewer resources to do the same amount of work. Post-COVID, you've had a massive increase in the number of people who have required your services. You have saved so many lives. Do you want to expand a little on that?

[Evie Ali]

Yes. It's really been quite a journey throughout the last six years.

There were multiple points to your question, but let's talk about the saving lives piece. From January to April, we lost 42 individuals in our community as a result of toxic drug poisonings. In that same window of time, we responded to 129 overdoses that were effectively reversed. We do work at a very limited capacity, because we are a non-profit agency, and we did reduce our staff as of January 1 of this year due to some funding cuts.

Could you repeat the question?

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

That's okay. There's another thing I was just looking at. Reports from last year show that 5,630 people died from accidental overdoses. That was a decline from the year before, but that's still too many. You talked about the 40 people you had to deal with. I cannot imagine having an incident where you know you could save a life and you know it's something you could prevent, but because of resource scarcity you lose a life.

I want to touch on something that I think my colleagues hinted at. One of the issues we face is that when something like this happens, most of the time when you don't have the resources, people end up in hospitals. That actually costs us more, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct?

From your perspective, do you think Bill C-238 could strengthen your ability to support more people so that we could actually save more in the long run?

[Evie Ali]

Absolutely. Again, if we look at how Bill C-238 is outlined, it's just acknowledging that we are absorbing costs related to these crimes taking place. As you mentioned, we are seeing overloaded emergency first responders across the board. It's not just in northern Ontario. I'm pretty sure it's everywhere. We work very closely with our community partners to alleviate some of those strains, but funding is always the barrier.

This is acknowledging the work already being done and the impact it already has. It's just in a more legal framework.

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate your sharing your story, as well.

I want to move to Cristina with my remaining time.

First, thank you so much for being here this morning.

You talked a lot about the system and how we cannot allow the victims to fall into the same trap. Do you believe the current justice system adequately recognizes the burden placed on organizations that provide services to trafficking survivors?

[Cristina Scarpellini]

I don't believe the whole justice system [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I'm sorry. I've stopped your time.

Can I get IT to get in touch with...?

Are you back? Can you hear us?

[Cristina Scarpellini]

Yes, I can hear you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Please continue, then.

[Cristina Scarpellini]

I'm sorry. Could you repeat that question? I totally got sidetracked.

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I wanted to ask if you think the current justice system adequately recognizes the burden placed on organizations like yourselves that provide services to trafficking survivors.

[Cristina Scarpellini]

Like I said, I think, for the majority, yes, it does. There might be the odd person for whom it doesn't. They need [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Recovery only starts after they've exited the game.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

You're back again.

Ms. Scarpellini, you keep freezing on our screen over here, so I'm not sure if....

[Cristina Scarpellini]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Try turning off your camera, for the connection. It is your connectivity that's the issue over here. Perhaps you can answer the question in your remaining time with your camera off.

[Cristina Scarpellini]

I'm sorry. That's what I had to say in regard to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Begum, your time is up.

Mr. Fortin, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Ali, earlier, my Conservative colleague asked you a question about the recovery process. I just want to make sure we understand each other.

The bill provides that, when someone is charged with assault, for example, not only will the Crown have to prove that an offence was committed, but the trial will be prolonged so that the harm suffered by the organization seeking restitution can be established and the link can between that harm and the accused's wrongdoing can be demonstrated. The wrongdoing will, of course, be the commission of the offence, but it will still be necessary to prove that harm occurred and to establish the connection between the two. That will take some time, and it will vary depending on the circumstances.

Aren't you afraid that defence lawyers will use that court time to seek a stay of proceedings on the grounds that the trial was not held within a reasonable time?