Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for joining us today.
I have to agree with you that there are some very positive aspects to this new bill, particularly ensuring that there's independence of the judiciary and the military, as there is in civilian life, the new sentencing opportunities to provide the same sorts of conditional and intermittent sentences that apply, and a whole series of welcome changes.
The thing that bothers me--and you did refer to it, and I'm sure you probably read or were told about the comments I made in my speech in the House--is the summary trial process. Notwithstanding the absence of serious comment by Justices Lamer and Dickson about these matters, it is pretty clear that in terms of the process, at least, the summary trials don't meet the test of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in that there is a lack of rules of evidence, there is a lack of an independent tribunal--the commanding officer knows the accused and probably knows all of the witnesses--there's no transcript, and there's no real appeal, though there's a review process.
I frankly don't have a serious objection to that in the context of a military discipline. I think we accept the notion that in the military you have to maintain morale and discipline to have a cohesive fighting force for all the right reasons.
The problem I have when it comes to the fact of a criminal record...now some changes have been made here. The changes seem to be dependent upon the sentence. I know, and we all know, what the consequences of a criminal record can be to any individual, whether in civilian life or in trying to cross the border--and that is getting more and more problematic as time goes on. I think that's something I would want to avoid while you do have a procedure that doesn't meet the full test.
We've invited witnesses, or consideration of this legislation by people outside of this committee, with legal backgrounds and experience in defending people in court, bar associations and so on, and civil liberty associations to come to the committee and talk about this issue.
I guess I'm going to ask you this. Are you prepared to maintain an open mind with respect to that issue, notwithstanding, as I said, that Justice Dickson didn't raise it as a major issue? Are you prepared to consider what evidence we may hear and what recommendations we may make as a committee to perhaps insulate, if you will, our men and women in uniform from the consequences that shouldn't be there if their rights aren't fully respected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?