Justice committee  What I'm telling you, though, is for someone who works on the front line—and I've worked on a variety of different issues—when victims come to me and tell me what their biggest challenges are, it's not the sentencing of the offender, but where am I going to get the money to pay my mortgage?

Justice committee  Yes, and you've asked me a question. You've asked me a question and I'd like to follow up.

Justice committee  If you want names of victims who will come to you and tell you something different—

Justice committee  I've met Sheldon and he's one of the nicest guys in the world. I don't lose sleep over sex offenders spending time in prison; that doesn't bother me. If you heard Sheldon's testimony, one of the things he said was that in his own case the offender got three years. I'm not sure under which provisions he was convicted, but my understanding is that under this bill, there will be a one-year mandatory minimum penalty.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  I would answer in a couple of ways. I think Mrs. Rosenfeldt mentioned when she was here that she didn't speak for all victims of crime. You've had a couple here, and I commend you for that. I know most of them and I have nothing but respect for all of them. But they don't represent the views of all victims of crime.

Justice committee  I heard her testimony and I heard her speak about the provisions for the CCRA. I didn't hear her say she supported the entire legislation.

Justice committee  Yes, it's policy right now. So we support that.

Justice committee  I'm not sure what you would put in to enhance it. I think the provisions for CCR are important. I think if we're looking just at the particulars of the bill, it really doesn't deal with the majority of challenges that victims face on a day-to-day basis. There's a host of other things I could recommend that could do that.

Justice committee  I've actually had the debate with some of those who have testified before you, and I respectfully disagree with them. For me, in an age where resources are very scarce in communities and we see children not getting the services they need, I think if you're concerned about victims of crime, you're better off spending money on serving them than on punishing offenders.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, members of the committee, for allowing me to come here today to talk to you a little about our views on the bill. Just briefly, I am the former Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime and I'm currently with Ottawa Victim Services. There are provisions in the bill that we do support, particularly the enhancements of victims' rights within the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

Justice committee  I'm here as an individual. I'm saying “we” in terms of this being a collective process.

Justice committee  The issues that we talk about, and I say “we” when I mean colleagues in the field who work in similar capacities as I do, are not the issues I hear when I attend and participate in their meetings. One of our concerns in this age of limited resources—and we all know the financial challenges that our country faces—is that we are not sure this is the best use of resources, if the goal is to benefit victims of crime.