Thanks to all of you, first of all, for being here and for bringing your expertise. Obviously, it's very appreciated. There's a lot of depth in what you've presented.
Leading into today's session we were provided with an outline from our Library of Parliament. I want to refer to just one section of it, if I might. It's what they prepared in terms of giving us a briefing coming into this. I will quote this for you:
A total of 1,351 Canadian offenders were transferred to Canada between 1978 and 2007. Of these, 1,069 (79%) were transferred from the United States. The other countries from which the most Canadians were repatriated were Mexico (59 offenders, or 4.4% of transfers), the United Kingdom (33 offenders, or 2.4% of transfers)....
There were 12 from Peru, Thailand had 17, Venezuela had 17, Cuba had 16, and Costa Rica had 14. Then, says the report, “Fewer than 10 offenders were repatriated from any other country.” That's the end of the quote from the report from the Library of Parliament.
So clearly, the vast majority of offenders we're dealing with here offend in the United States. In comparison, a total of 124 offenders were transferred out of Canada between 1978 and 2007. Of these, 106 offenders, or 85.5%, were transferred to the United States.
I think it's important to note that there were 106 sent to the United States and 1,069 brought back from the U.S. over the same period. The International Transfer of Offenders Act, as it currently exists, requires the minister to consider whether the foreign country's prison system poses a threat to “the offender's security” and “human rights”. I guess I would ask each one of you, as lawyers involved--maybe Mr. Conroy can start--if that's correct. Is that taken into consideration?