As I indicated as the federal ombudsman, the majority of direct services for victims of crime in Canada are the responsibility of the provinces and territories.
When we hear of a lot of the immediate needs of victims of crime, such as.... I'll make this comment, because it got talked about. I was fortunate enough to be here for the previous presenters. When you talk about the needs of victims of crime, a lot of the needs they have and the need to be respected is about their treatment within the criminal justice system.
When we talk about needs, obviously there's an entire continuum. Obviously, prevention is hugely important, because if prevention works, we don't need the rest of this. If prevention doesn't work, we have to look at early intervention, and then, unfortunately, when a crime happens, there's the court system, and there are post-conviction and post-release. For many victims—I also had the privilege of reading some of the transcripts—as you will hear, the needs are lifelong.
We looked at direct services. It really is the majority of them that are offered. I have had the privilege of going across this country and speaking to many different victims, including at the forum. One of the things the forum really brought out, and one of the things that we felt was important, and I think it's reflected as well in my comments, was to involve people from the aboriginal community in the development of that forum, in the development of the themes that were there.
As I indicated, around the eight themes we do have some very powerful videos that are available on our website in which victims are speaking directly to what some of those needs are.
There are many different programs, many services, and many examples throughout Canada, but the majority, as I say, would be offered at the provincial and territorial levels.
One of the things that we do use our voice for, however, is to get that message out about what those needs are. It was spoken about again very much around this table: the need to be informed. I have to tell you that the need for information for victims, and it being culturally appropriate.... I'll use one example from Dr. Dawn Harvard. I have had the privilege of speaking to victims from aboriginal first nations, Métis, and Inuit as well. In recognizing the cultural...I'll just give one simple example.
I had the privilege of going up to Iqaluit and going to the women's shelter and meeting different people. Some of the victim support workers who worked there talked about their culture and fact that while we go to a court of law and say, “This is the person who did this”, they say “maybe”. It's a learning experience for me. In order to really understand, I had the privilege of listening to some grandmothers, who talked about the fact that there are two different dialects of Inuktitut and many different languages, and who also said that some of the words in the criminal justice system that we use regularly don't exist in their language.
Those are just some examples I've had of people sharing. We have created a national framework of information, dialogue, and exchange. We want to ensure that we include aboriginal people in the development and in the recommendations we make from our office, but again, the majority of those direct services are the responsibility of the provinces and territories.