Any national strategy would have to include involvement from the police, the courts, and the health providers. It would have to look at resources available in local communities. This will not be an easy or a quick change. By the time the Correctional Service of Canada receives a mentally ill offender at one of their reception and assessment centres, we've already lost a whole bunch of opportunities. It then becomes my business to see how the Correctional Service responds to that challenge. But there are a whole host of things that should have happened before it got to that point, and that's well beyond my competence.
On October 6th, 2009. See this statement in context.