Public Safety committee  Thank you for your question. My recommendation was to establish an independent agency, but today, I would like to let the committee know that I am willing to allow for the benefit of the doubt to see how the proposal in the bill will address certain situations. You are quite right to say that we are dealing with challenges.

Public Safety committee  All jurisdictions rely on a witness protection program like this when they have one, but only as a last resort. So it's the tail end, the extreme of the continuum, of protection practices. That's not the one we should rely on all the time. This is one of the reasons I welcome the recent developments about cooperation with provincial programs, where sometimes all that is required is assistance in changing identity.

Public Safety committee  I would definitely agree that the new provision of psychological support is absolutely important. It probably does address a lot of the concerns that have been expressed in the past, so that is a very positive development. It's not the same though, as a psychologist is not there to help someone assert their rights under the law.

Public Safety committee  There is not a whole lot of difference in terms of the criteria, but there is a growing recognition that witnesses and victims have a right to protection whether or not they're being useful—or very useful—to the system. This is perhaps not totally reflected in the law. I'm not suggesting it isn't reflected in practice, because I do not really know how those decisions are made case by case, but it's not totally reflected in the law.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. There is no doubt that the decision to testify or cooperate with the authorities is an important and difficult decision to make for many witnesses and informants, particularly because we're talking very often talking about crimes that involve very dangerous organizations.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee this morning. I really appreciate this because I think Bill C-51 will make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the federal witness protection program, as well as of the available provincial programs.