Mr. Speaker, the RCMP databases do not capture the number of people “arrested” but rather the charges laid. That said, the information is manually entered by police officers into our systems using a free-text field, resulting in wording discrepancies, including the omission of drug/substance-related charges and/or the use of alternate wording, for example, the use of “distribution” rather than “trafficking”. In order to respond to this question, an extensive manual search of all RCMP databases would have to be conducted, which could not be completed within the established timelines.
In the House of Commons on May 11th, 2022. See this statement in context.