Thank you, Chair, and thank you to both of our witnesses. It's illuminating.
I have what may be a unique experience in this. I grew up in Rexdale, and I now live in and represent a northern community in British Columbia. Friends of mine used to have a term for this when we were growing up: the crime was “walking while black”. Out in my neighbourhood, the chances of getting stopped and potentially picked up if you were young and black were dramatically higher. All of our stats support this. In Vancouver, indigenous people are seven times more likely than white people to be arrested. In Regina, they're nine times more likely to be arrested.
Mr. Cudjoe, I want to pick up on the point from my Conservative colleague. If a white middle-class kid gets picked up for possession and has access to a lawyer, the chances of their ending up with a criminal record or a secondary record of an administrative justice charge are much lower than those for somebody struggling with poverty, in a racialized community or in a marginalized community. Is that correct?