Status of Women Committee on Nov. 19th, 2025

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here.

I am proud to have Depot in my riding in Regina-Lewvan, so I am the MP of the home of the RCMP and training. Coincidentally, we met with the National Police Federation, some of your colleagues, a couple of weeks ago.

We've talked about resources a lot in this meeting, and the resources needed. There has been a commitment to hiring 1,000 new officers, which would help on the streets and help keep people safe. I wonder about this: In your books, it says that's going to cost $200 million. Is that budgeted in your current RCMP budget?

[Brian Sauvé]

Well, it's not my budget—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Brian Sauvé]

—and I won't speak for the commissioner as to how he spends his money. However, it's my understanding that the extra 1,000 over the next four years that the government has committed to in the budget is part of that $1.8-billion investment into the RCMP, including an increase to the cadet training allowance to make the RCMP a more attractive employer during their training time.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you.

Another request from your budget submission was $62.5 million to add 500 RCMP special constables by 2028. Do you know how much headway, if any, has been made on that to add resources for keeping our communities across the country safer?

[Brian Sauvé]

From the federal perspective, I'm not sure if we've succeeded on that yet. However, I do know that different jurisdictions such as Nova Scotia and British Columbia, which are committing to renewing their contracts beyond 2032, are fascinated by the idea of the utilization of a special constable category whereby.... For those who aren't familiar, in the RCMP, you have the “gun- and badge-toting” constable, the “badge-toting” special constable and then the “neither of the above” civilian support staff. The special constable category, for example, could be more used in a band bylaw situation or in a major event situation, where you just walk and don't walk—you're standing here for security versus having a completely armed police officer. We've been advocating for that for the RCMP, and I know that there is an appetite in the RCMP for revisiting and looking at how it classifies its positions. Hence, we've been pushing the federal government to revisit that and invest in it.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you very much for that.

I am very interested in the data-sharing aspect of this. I think it's a huge gap in our policing—the fact that we can't share across interprovincial borders. What if a crime has been committed by someone in a different province?

What would be...? I know you have a $1-billion ask in here for public-private partners to...for public safety and to create a broadband network. That's a very big ask, but I think the timing is.... How long would it take to get something up and running, so that you could share that data interprovincially? Is there anything that you could add on to right now, or would you have to basically start a project like that from scratch?

[Brian Sauvé]

If I take the easy way, I would say that you could probably do it fairly quickly, because the Canadian Police Information Centre already exists. All police services have access to it. The RCMP obviously maintains it. However, it does need modernization. Maybe we change the parameters of how CPIC works and what can be included in CPIC. Right now, if I query someone on CPIC, all I'm getting is their convictions and charges outstanding, not necessarily what was stayed.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

That was my question. I have my PAL, so I get run through CPIC daily, I think, to make sure I haven't committed a crime and my possession and acquisition licence stays valid. How would you be able to add past crimes to that? Could that be used, then, for police forces to check up on whether people have committed crimes in their jurisdictions?

[Brian Sauvé]

That's probably where the privacy lawyers are going to get involved. They'll give you some recommendations on how you can get around that hurdle. I can say only that it's a records database. We can probably improve that records database, which is accessible to all police across all jurisdictions.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you. I appreciate the job you guys do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good.

Our last round of questions will go to you, Madame Ménard, and whoever you care to share your time with.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I hope I have time for my four questions.

For the benefit of the committee and from the perspective of multiple points of view, I'd like to go back to what you said, Ms. Richer and Ms. Ahélo. You've been very clear. You said you support a charge of first-degree murder for any intimate partner murder.

Concerns have been raised about this at this committee. This could mean that, in a self-defence scenario, a woman could be charged with first-degree murder. That's what we note in Bill C‑225. The Liberals are uncomfortable with this proposal.

I'd be very curious to hear your comments on that, Ms. Anderson‑Pyrz.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

I think it could be dangerous, especially if a woman is protecting herself during intimate partner violence. As indigenous women, we know that we experience a lot of injustice in the justice system. Often, when we're expressing our lived experiences and our realities, we're ignored. We're dismissed. Especially if our partner is non-indigenous, they tend to believe him or her over us as indigenous women, because of the systemic and structural racism that's deeply embedded in policing and the justice system, so there's a big risk factor for us there.

Thank you.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Do you see a blind spot when it comes to laying such a charge in all cases, automatically?

[Catherine Ahélo]

The person could be charged, but self-defence could still be invoked. This person was defending herself, and she killed her spouse with no intention of doing so. So it's not because a murder occurs during an event that a person will automatically receive a 25-year prison sentence. All the defences that already exist will be able to be invoked in such a case.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Mr. Sauvé, what are your comments on that?

[Brian Sauvé]

I would agree. I mean, a crime is a crime is a crime, whether it's in self-defence or not. From a policing perspective, we would still have to investigate, and, should something come of it, obviously make a recommendation. Then it's in the hands of the court.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Thank you.

On a number of occasions, Mr. Sauvé, as other witnesses have done today, you mentioned that the federal government could play a leadership role. We understand that term, but we seem to have trouble making it concrete.

What do you have in mind in terms of the leadership role that the government could play?

[Brian Sauvé]

I've raised this issue with Minister Fraser.

Whether it's bail reform or whether it's intimate partner violence—

[A voice]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Brian Sauvé]

I'm sorry to switch to English, but it will be easier for me to answer you.

In terms of leadership, let's convene a meeting of all the attorneys general. Let's convene a meeting of judges. Let's get a consistent training manual for Crown counsels. Let's get consistent training for judicial justices of the peace, so that the application of the Criminal Code in a jurisdiction for the intent of the offence or the reverse onus provision or the bail provision is actually consistent across Canada.

That's what I mean by taking a leadership perspective. Somebody has to take the ball and start running.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Mr. Sauvé, what are the most obvious effects that training has on police forces when it comes to supporting women who are victims of domestic violence or other acts of violence?

[Brian Sauvé]

It's always a better result, whether we're talking about training about mental health or about.... There was a topic a little while ago, when CEWs first came out, about “excited delirium”. There was training about that, learning about that and being aware of that. There's training about domestic and intimate partner violence.

The more training and the more education that your police officers get, the better. The trauma-informed approach is now fairly informed now. It's getting better.

The more we can do to inform our frontline paramedics, firefighters, police officers and those who deal with people in the first instance, the better the service delivery will become.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you so much. That's a great place to conclude our meeting today.

I want to thank the witnesses for appearing. Your contributions are much appreciated and very helpful to us.

For the committee, I'll just let you know that we're getting together on Monday. Only one of the witnesses whom we've called is willing to come, so we're actually going to put that witness on the Wednesday panel. We'll start with committee business on Monday.

I think there are a couple of motions that we've given notice on, and there's the scheduling of the ministers who have agreed to come.