No need. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you to the witnesses, thank you for being here.
To the victim of Mr. Dobson, I have to say we must as legislators look at this dispassionately, but it sometimes is difficult to do so when you hear certain stories.
I want to just start my questioning by realizing that this is somewhat like a parole hearing in that you're being asked to revisit it again. But I can assure you, and I think I speak for all parties, it is not in vain, and we appreciate your doing so, as well as the other witnesses who are here.
I did take advantage of the No Freedom Dobson website, to look at it, and of course, I recently read your family's experiences with hearings, where it stated that you ripped up your victim impact statement in frustration during the review because you weren't able to say what you wanted.
I quote from it:
They said, “Well you can't say the word monster, you can't call him a product of the devil—it's disrespectful,"....
And then you further said:
Well where was my sister's respect when he was murdering her?
I think you're completely right to say that.
There's been an imbalance in our system. What we're trying to do is bring back balance. It seems that part of the goal of this bill is tilted so that the balance is somewhat backwards when we're dealing with rights of victims.
I wonder if you could comment on how you felt your rights were violated through the process and how parts of this bill might and could help you during those hearings.