Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to start with Mr. Kennedy.
Thank you both for being here. We appreciate it very much.
Mr. Kennedy, I'm going to go over the three areas you had difficulty with so I know whether I heard you correctly.
The first was on withholding certain information that would be available to the new civilian review and complaints commission. The other was on the review body being kept in the dark regarding the information they would be receiving. The third was on the service standards and no actual time limits or restraints on how long the investigation would take.
On the whole issue of information, I'm frankly a little surprised. We just had the current chair of the complaints commission here. We have heard from a number of other witnesses who are really pleased with the measures that Bill C-42 has taken in making sure the complaints commission could get the information that's required and could summons information and witnesses. I would like some clarification on how much further you think we should go on that.
In regard to the time constraints, there are pros and cons to both. When you put time restraints on an investigative body or a complaints commission, those can work against the complaints commission, just as if, were it open-ended and extended 10 years, that would obviously not be desirable.
I don't know whether it is a fair assumption that not putting time constraints on the complaints commission would automatically create delays. I would just caution all of us as we're reviewing this bill that certainly there are pros and cons to both. I would think this bill would intend to give the complaints commission the time it needs to do the job, as opposed to putting time constraints on the commission and then not getting the job done properly. It's looking at the pros and cons of both scenarios.
I just have a few moments, but I'll give you a moment to comment, if you'd like, and then I'd like to go on to Mr. Plecas.