Thank you. I'll be very brief.
Good morning. It's my pleasure to appear before you again today. As you're aware, I'm the director general of the drugs and organized crime program for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. As such, I oversee the source witness protection program as administered by the RCMP.
Today I would also like to introduce Superintendent Carl Busson. He's the officer in charge of the drug program in the province of British Columbia for the RCMP.
The witness protection program currently has approximately 1,000 protectees. Of these, approximately 700 are from RCMP cases, while approximately 300 are assistance cases to other law enforcement agencies.
I want to stress that none of these protectees has the benefit of immunity should he or she go on to commit further criminal offences. In fact, paragraph 8(b) of the Witness Protection Program Act clearly stipulates that as a condition of protection agreement, a protectee shall refrain from activities that constitute an offence against an act of Parliament. In addition, protectees are warned about committing criminal offences during the screening process, and they also have to sign protection agreements where these stipulations and undertakings are fully documented and outlined.
That said, it would be unrealistic to expect that none of the protectees would go on to commit further criminal offences. In fact, between April 1, 2004, and April 1, 2007, nine of the 1,000 protectees were terminated for commission of criminal offences. When a protectee has committed, or is suspected of committing, a criminal offence, the criminal investigation is pursued by the enforcement agency of jurisdiction.
In addition, it should be understood that all protectees retain their past criminal record. All protectees are subject to prosecution for the commission of criminal offences, and courts of criminal jurisdiction are provided with a protectee's criminal record for their consideration. Essentially, protectees are treated under the criminal justice system like any other Canadian citizen.
As the administrator of the current national program, I can advise you that we are constantly reviewing the program in an effort to provide program improvements. These efforts include both on-site reviews of individual witness protection sites and cases, as well as updates to the various courses we offer in the area of human source training and source witness protection. I welcome this opportunity to discuss how the program could be made better to serve the needs of Canadians as well as of all law enforcement agencies in Canada.
Thank you very much.