That's an excellent question.
I'm not aware that this has been studied in any detail. What I know, by talking to numerous victims and their families, is that it's unique to every individual. When I said earlier on that it seems the perpetrator's rights are put ahead of the victims' and the victims' families' rights, what I've heard from families is that with this unbelievable trauma, they see the perpetrator getting assistance through the correctional system, but they don't get it. It's not necessarily something that they have access to as well.
I can't even imagine what these families go through—and not just individually. When one person dies in such a horrific way, it definitely affects the central family. We've seen it with the whole neighbourhood. We've seen the interviews where people said, “I knew this guy and was really surprised by whatever is going on.” It's a psychological hit to the entire community and, sometimes with some of these more horrific ones, the entire country.
Everyone deals with these traumas in their own unique way. By allowing them to have a choice of when they're ready, whether it's a year from now or 15 or 20 years from now.... Lisa got more involved, even though it was 20 years later. In her mind, it was supposed to be a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. The fact that it happened earlier...she was taken by surprise by the trauma and the uncertainty of the system.
To Mr. Bittle's comment about the ombudsman coming before you and realizing there are things that we are aware of that we need to do, we're learning more and more. These things don't go away. These are life-changing events, and how each and every victim and their family adapts to them is something we have to be very cognizant of and respect. We have to allow them as much transparency as possible and as much transparency as they're able to digest at that time.
Mr. Perron, you've brought up an extremely important issue. As I said, with this bill, I think we have good support around the table for it, but maybe it's going to bring up some other questions on how we can make improvements.
I thank you for your question.