Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And through you to the witnesses, thank you for appearing today.
I recall, Mr. Dandurand, your appearance before this committee in 2008, and some of your suggestions. I'm happy that the government has seen fit to incorporate them, although, to use your words, “rather lightly” in some respects, but then we don't get everything we want all the time.
At that time there were, as you may recall, a great many other suggestions, some of them not quite the same as yours. As a matter of fact I wouldn't say they were diametrically opposed, but they didn't necessarily go along the same path yours did. It's good to see that the current legislation goes down that path.
I was making some notes as you were speaking, and I printed the word “trust”. You were talking about the availability of counsel for the people in the program who may have some complaints. If I recall correctly, one of the reasons the committee was looking at the witness protection program was that there had been some issues surrounding the way some of the people protected were being treated. I believe, as a matter of fact I know, that this legislation covers some of that or neutralizes some of those problems.
When we heard from the RCMP witnesses, I believe some of the testimony indicated that there is an availability of counsel, and I think you mentioned that. So how much more...?
We live in a society where everybody runs around yelling and screaming about rights, rights, rights. But there's a huge responsibility living in a democracy, in a country that has the rule of law. Everyone is responsible, not just the state. The individual citizen is responsible for the function of our justice system and public safety. If you go back to the original function of police, it's that the people should police themselves. But in a modern society you have people who put on uniforms to do these jobs.
All that considered, for these great people who take their responsibilities seriously to give evidence for the state, because of the complexity and because of the danger that puts them in, the state now provides them with an opportunity to.... Because they've taken such a big stand, the state assumes a very expensive.... If I remember correctly, the average dollar figure per year is around $60,000 per witness—some more, some less.
I wonder if you could talk about the trust element, and then the responsibility element of the witness and how the state takes on this responsibility. And since we're dealing with BillC-51, does Bill C-51 strike the right balance? So far we have heard that generally it does.