Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the hon. member for his very insightful and in-depth remarks. It certainly signifies his awareness and his contribution as well to the process and to the justice committee in particular.
In the latter part of his remarks, he raised a very important issue with respect to a false impression or perhaps an unfair expectation on the part of victims upon hearing that there will be this policy office, which I think he characterizes correctly as being a lens on a lot of other federal legislation in terms of efforts to improve victims' participation in our justice system.
I would like to follow up on the issue of an office of an ombudsman filling the need of many victims for information sharing. I am sure the member conducted town hall meetings. I know I conducted one in Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough. Repeatedly the number one complaint of victims was that they did not receive the information quickly. Sometimes they even received contradictory information from various sources in the justice system.
One person in particular who has a very strong feeling in this regard is Lynne Charron who lost her father Ferdinand to a terrible murder. She was very much in favour of an office where information could be obtained, a 1-800 number, and a system that would provide timely and important information to victims on matters pertaining to their cases which might be pending before the criminal justice system. Equally important, in the aftermath when a person is incarcerated and parole is pending or rehabilitative programs are being attempted, victims have an ongoing unwilling attachment to a person who has intruded upon their lives. Members such as the member for Surrey North can certainly attest to that.
Does the hon. member opposite feel that this is an important step his government could take? The next step would be a national victims office with an ombudsman, similar to the correctional investigators office, to provide these needs to victims in a timely fashion.