Justice committee  If you are asking how many new charges....

Justice committee  In 2006, 74 murders of the 104 were first degree, 29 were second degree, and one was manslaughter. We have statistics going back to 2000. Looking at this historically, according to our Statistics Canada information, you are seeing an increase in both first degree and second degre

Justice committee  It is a difficult question you raise, and I think you're right that the legislative answer might not be the best one. What we do know is that street gangs are being successfully prosecuted under the criminal organization offences. It's not frequent, but we have had successful pro

Justice committee  What we have in the Criminal Code right now is, I guess, what one could call a partial scheme with respect to police officers and protection afforded to police officers. We have section 270, which is a simple assault of a peace officer acting in the course of their duties, and at

Justice committee  That's exactly what it's doing. It's proposing to address the more serious offences, and in addition, Bill C-14 would codify the principle that in sentencing for such attacks, which undermine the justice system more broadly, judges would be required to consider deterrents and de

Justice committee  Certainly we do have information on reported decisions. I'm sure we could make that available, as organized by different issues—for example, what constitutes a material benefit, who is a criminal organization, etc.

Justice committee  Clause 1 is really a drafting formality to bring consistency to the use of certain specified terms throughout the code and to ensure that there's no ambiguity in how these terms are interpreted in the code.

Justice committee  Clause 2 is only a drafting formality to modernize language in the code.

Justice committee  Clause 4 adds one existing offence and a proposed new offence to section 183 to authorize wiretaps for the investigation of these offences. Section 244 on discharging a firearm with intent, which exists in the code currently, was not included in that list. So we're adding it to t

Justice committee  Clause 5 is complicated. It contains a number of amendments to certain subsections. By and large, we're trying to specify that murder in specific instances will automatically be first degree. The two instances are where the murder is committed for the criminal organization, and w

Justice committee  The amendment is relatively straightforward. It proposes to remove the mandatory minimum penalty scheme. How that would fit more broadly in the Criminal Code is that it would create somewhat of a disconnect with what currently exists. As Monsieur Lemay already pointed out, ther

Justice committee  I have to admit I'm a bit lost. Perhaps you could just point to....

Justice committee  I understood the question as relating to a reference to section 727 of the Criminal Code. You are referring to previous convictions. Section 727 of the Criminal Code requires a prosecutor to give notice if they intend to seek a higher mandatory minimum penalty by virtue of a pre

Justice committee  Good morning. I'm not Amir Attaran.

Justice committee  I'm Matthew Taylor, Department of Justice, criminal law policy.