Public Safety committee  Absolutely. I think in the Federal Court case in which they have been arguing for access, the judge essentially noted that it's a shame that the media have more rights to access those recordings than the families themselves, and the judge referred it back to Parliament to say that legislative change is required to address that.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. I think that's exactly what we need. We need ongoing communication and respectful consultation on that type of safety information. Too much onus is on victims to know what to do or what to ask for. The CVBR really leaves us with rights that people need to ask about, and they don't know that they need to ask.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. I'm sorry, but I will answer in English. I clearly agree that victims' rights don't currently carry a weight equivalent to offenders' rights, and I think there is a problem with how we think about information, thinking that it somehow belongs to the offenders. There is a lack of understanding of how relevant and how important that is to victims and how central it is to their experience.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. That's a really important question that speaks to clear rights that victims have to protection and participation. The CVBR puts an onus on victims to request information, but the onus is on the state to provide protection and participation, and that needs to be better reflected in the CCRA.

Public Safety committee  I'm not sure. I know that they're gathering along the way. My understanding is that at the end of the committee's engagement, there will be a report. I can say, from what I've seen, that work is being done already on things that the committee is raising and on recommendations that we've made.

Public Safety committee  I have really big hopes. I don't know that the committee is big enough. It's clear that the CCRA is not fulfilling the needs of victims of crime, and I think it's very clear that victims' rights are so limited in Canada. In the CVBR itself, about 30% of the text is dedicated to disclaimers on when the rights shouldn't apply.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. I'll start with acknowledging that my capable team has advised me that I misspoke on the CCRA. For this whole time, I'm sure government lawyers have been cringing. Please accept my deepest apologies. I said that for medium security and maximum security transfers, victims are notified two days after.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. To all the witnesses, I'm so sorry for what you've experienced. The way we are treating victims of crime in Canada isn't just. It's not kind, it's not compassionate and it's not respectful. Our office has made recommendations about notifications of prison transfers all the way back to 2010.

Public Safety committee  Honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting me. We are on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation. I honour the leadership, strength and wisdom of Indigenous peoples and I accept personal responsibility for pursuing justice and reconciliation.

Justice committee  It's not permanent funding, from my understanding.

Justice committee  Yes. I don't think that a survivor should be criminalized through a measure that the federal government thinks is respecting their right to privacy. It just doesn't make sense. I think sometimes we arrive at these spaces that don't make sense when we step back and consider them.

Justice committee  I think the federal government, through the victims fund, has done a pilot project across the country to fund independent legal assistance in cases of sexual assault and is piloting it as well in cases of domestic violence. For now, we have a system that we can use, but we certainly need to consider how to better embed those rights and services for survivors into the justice system.

Justice committee  I think a lot of those resources already exist. The provinces, territories and the federal government have resources that explain the justice process, but nobody has a requirement to provide them. It's a simple bridging mechanism: We can say that people who experience harm should at least be provided with this information.

Justice committee  Yes. Thank you. Can you imagine if, in your family, someone was murdered and the federal government didn't think that it was appropriate to let you know that the offender was being released, or if you could participate in a parole hearing but they didn't tell you that it was happening.

Justice committee  Thank you. I think that a victim's right to privacy is often interpreted for them and not in a way that benefits them. It helps to bring more choice to the way that privacy is exercised and allows people to choose whether they want those measures in place. Some people certainly want them and some people definitely don't.