Justice committee  The provision as worded offers some guarantees. For instance, the prosecution and the defence must consent to this stay in sentencing. The advantage of this system and its effectiveness is related to the fact that when judges postpone sentencing, they give the accused a chance, but at the same time, they have a sword of Damocles suspended over the accused's head.

Justice committee  I can tell you that this suggestion was made in the form of resolutions presented by three provinces, on three different occasions, at the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. Prosecutors explained that the offence "possessing break-in instruments" was often committed at the same time as the break and enter into a place other than a dwelling house, which may be a summary conviction offence.

Justice committee  There is an attempt to mitigate certain risks like in the case of a challenge for cause. When there is reason to believe that a perspective juror may be biased, questions are asked in that regard. He will be asked, for instance, about knowledge of newspaper articles or media reports.

Justice committee  There is already indeed a system in place for the seizure of offence-related property. The amendment allows for the seizure of a computer used to commit an offence, even a summary conviction offence. As you know, for the time being, provisions on offence-related property apply when offences are dealt with by way of indictment, so for the more serious offences, but we consider that when a computer is used to commit an offence, whether it is serious or less so, the Court should have the authority to seize this computer.

Justice committee  Most criminal law amendments come from resolutions which were passed at the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. As you probably know, it is a forum for provincial Crown prosecutors, defence bar representatives and sometimes judges. Most of the amendments come from resolutions which were passed by a large majority of members of this group.