Justice committee  I will give you an empirical answer, as an informed person, not as someone who has done in-depth studies on this. The general trend indicates that crime is decreasing.

Justice committee  I think, as the saying goes, it's in cases of the worst crime for the worst offender. That is, the worst crime for the worst offender. That's why, in my presentation, I questioned whether it was reasonable to think that this sentence would be useful if it were only applied in the case of offences liable to sentences of 5 years, 2 years, 18 months or 6 months.

Justice committee  Yes. The legislative summary describes various aspects of conditional sentencing. There are references to studies of such sentences, as well as statistics about their implementation at the provincial level. These are the studies I was referring to. The Department of Justice is aware of them.

Justice committee  We are sorry to say that this kind of analysis does not seem to have done yet, especially with regard to the application of such sentences in the case of various offences and the circumstances of their application. For instance, we do not know whether persons without a criminal record who have benefited from a conditional sentence are more likely to reoffend than persons who have been jailed.

Justice committee  I could give you an empirical answer, but on page 15, in the section entitled "Conditional Sentencing Data", you will find the data I was referring to earlier. That section deals with the use of conditional sentencing, the number of conditional sentences that have been imposed and the percentage of convictions involving a conditional sentence.

Justice committee  Just to state that when we look at an offence in and of itself, no one supports the commission of offences. And when lawyers make representations to judges, they're not making representations on the appropriateness of having committed an offence. The issue is how to deal with the person.

Justice committee  I would say the same thing, the application of the provisions. The Crown elects how to proceed. So this election may limit the judge's options in sentencing.

Justice committee  If you will allow me, I would like to add that any measure precluding reasonable or negotiated settlements will necessarily lead to an increase in the number of trials. I think we need to factor that in when making these decisions. Let us say, for instance, that an individual with no prior record stands accused of having committed a serious crime, like one of those that are mentioned here, punishable by a term of 10 years or more.

Justice committee  The emphasis is actually on the offence. Judges are told that even in a case where a just solution would be found in another provision, he cannot apply this provision. Our colleague, who is here now, gave as an example a situation where the judge had to choose between two extreme solutions.

Justice committee  No. My point was that there is no such evidence. What we're saying is that we know for certain--

Justice committee  No, but there are studies that have been made. There is the study—I have it here—from the Information and Research Service, and there are a number of studies that are quoted in the document. They relate to the application of the sentence in different provinces and national statistics on its use.

Justice committee  We can refer to the ones that were submitted to the justice ministry. In particular, I'm referring to documents we were able to access, the legislative résumé, where studies are considered in terms of the application of the sanction, where it's been applied in different provinces, the increase in its application, and the decrease in the number of individuals sent to prison.

Justice committee  Thank you. It is an honour for me to have this opportunity to present the Barreau du Québec's views before this committee. We of course hope to be able to contribute to your work. The Barreau du Québec holds the following views on conditional sentences: the Barreau du Québec believes that conditional sentences, as introduced in the Criminal Code in 1996, are an important additional instrument made available to the Canadian criminal law system.