Thank you.
That's a really important question that speaks to clear rights that victims have to protection and participation. The CVBR puts an onus on victims to request information, but the onus is on the state to provide protection and participation, and that needs to be better reflected in the CCRA.
To reply to what we heard earlier about victim statements, if I can differentiate, a “victim impact statement” is what's given at court for sentencing. Once somebody is in the custody of the Correctional Service, there is what is called a “victim statement”. It's very similar. You can provide details about how you've been affected, you can request geographic restrictions and you can share safety concerns.
We've requested that this mechanism be streamlined so that people can request geographic restrictions or share safety considerations without having to go through all of the impact on them personally, and it would carry the same weight without their needing to revisit those things.
People can submit victim statements at any point throughout the process. They can submit as many as they want. This is what we're told. I don't know what would happen if everyone submitted them weekly, but as we heard, it's impossible to submit them if you don't know they're required.
Within that existing mechanism of victim statements, or even just the streamlined version, we would like to see advance notification given of a pending decision, with clear information on how decisions are made and on how to share concerns or geographic restrictions that can be taken into that decision.
Finally, currently, CSC will automatically consider any information it has on file for registered victims, but without updates.... Somebody might have registered 20 years ago and they might not be living in the same place. We don't know their daughter just went to university in Kingston. Therefore, people really need to be prompted to share those concerns if they have them so that we can better protect the safety of victims of crime.