Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the people who have come to testify today.
Ms. James, the sponsor of the bill, told us about what motivated her to introduce it. If I am not mistaken, she told us that, in the Canadian correctional system, 15% of the grievances were filed by about 20 people, either to pass the time, or for amusement, or to bring the prison administration into disrepute. If that is the case, perhaps there is room for measures to address it.
However, the Correctional Investigator, whom we have spoken with about this problem, told us that it was actually either to do with people suffering from mental illness, or people wrongly believing that the timeframe for getting an answer is 10 days, thereby filing complaints repeatedly. That is like the Ashley Smith case, who filed her grievance over and over again because she had not received a reply.
Is it possible that most of those 20 or so people are filing grievances upon grievances because they do not get a reply within an amount of time that they consider reasonable, and not because they actually intend to file frivolous complaints?