First of all, I'd like to know where the money is being spent and whether it should be reallocated, augmented, or increased. On the best way to do that, you have an Auditor General. She doesn't have to know the identity of the individuals, but apparently $2.5 million was spent one year and it's been reduced to $1.9 million. What was that spent on? Did that include the staff, the handlers? Did it include the litigation? I know the Department of Justice is spending thousands of dollars detaining the cases we've brought. Did it cover relocation? As I said before, it's awfully difficult for a committee such as yours to know where to spend the resources to amend the legislation to help when there's a dearth of information.
You tell me you had witnesses here the other day from the United States, and they said that 95% had been involved in criminal paths. Well, that's not my experience at all. I don't know of any lawyer in Canada who has had as many witness protection cases as I have. I've had all sorts, all colours, all sizes, and all shapes, over many years. It's my experience that most of the protected witnesses I've handled have not been personally involved in crime.
Why on earth can't someone from the RCMP come and testify before you that they have had 700 witnesses over a number of years and, say, 350 had been involved in crime, or 500 had been involved in crime, and the balance had not? Why does this Canadian parliamentary committee have to rely on American statistical data? Do the RCMP not have these data? Surely it's very simple. I guess there are ways to get an independent body...and it's very difficult for parliamentarians such as you to gather these statistics. It shouldn't be your job.