Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate being here today, and the questions that need to be asked. I agree with Ms. O'Connell that it's important that we continue our study. Even though this is not a normally scheduled meeting, this is, I think, a continuation of what this committee has been studying.
We've heard what are, to my mind, some excellent recommendations from Mr. Danson, who's the lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families. I guess I'm a bit disappointed that we haven't had the time to sit down and make those recommendations and provide a report. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to continue those discussions, but I agree with Monsieur Paul-Hus that people don't understand the system. He's right. My worry is that certain politicians attempt to use situations like this to cloud how the system operates.
On this committee right now, there's a former police officer, who had a distinguished career of service, and a former prosecutor, who I also believe had a distinguished career of service to his community. However, they know—and are kind of not acknowledging this fact—that our legal system operates independently of elected officials, and these decisions on the reclassification of inmates are made independently of elected officials. As elected officials, we can be angry. I was very public with my extreme disappointment and shock over Mr. Bernardo's transfer. It's something that we expressed as a committee. However, these decisions are outside of our control.
Mr. Motz probably didn't arrest certain people that other individuals in his community would have wanted arrested. Mr. Caputo may have asked for a sentence that was lower than victims may have wanted. However, he and Mr. Motz were making those decisions independently. They were not popular, but they were not subject to, in Mr. Motz's case, the mayor coming in and saying this is wrong, or, in Mr. Caputo's case, the premier coming in and saying this is inappropriate.
Back when we had Commissioner Anne Kelly here, I asked her if the minister could get involved in this: Can the minister direct Correctional Services in the transfer of an inmate? Is it a legal order? Her response to my question was, “My understanding is that the minister does not have a role.”