Justice committee  Thank you very much. I am greatly appreciative of the invitation to appear before this committee. I consider it quite an honour. I'm a criminologist. I've been doing that at the University of the Fraser Valley in excess of 20 years. I would like to speak to the issue of organi

Justice committee  You would always want to keep the youth system separate from the adult system. We've always done that. Even Bill C-5's proposed changes don't really adjust that. They do make some allowances for movement of status.

Justice committee  No, I would not consider, under any circumstances, bunching the two systems together.

Justice committee  I don't recall speaking to the issue of gun control. I did address the--

Justice committee  I didn't speak to gun control, sir.

Justice committee  It would be a deterrent for some individuals. It would not be a deterrent for someone who is very deep in the gang lifestyle. They would not be deterred by that type of sentence.

Justice committee  On the issue of marijuana and sentencing, I think if we look at the difference between British Columbia and Washington state, the story speaks for itself. Washington state is very similar demographically to B.C. It has almost no grow ops. They are not a priority for law enforce

Justice committee  I don't think anyone is disputing the need to focus on rehabilitation with youth. I think we're being wholly irresponsible, though, when we send youth and adults for these short, brief sentences where there's not even enough time to conduct a diagnosis, let alone engage in a trea

Justice committee  We have an enormous problem with sending mentally ill people to jail. That's been going on since the 1980s when we entered into the de-institutionalization of mental health facilities and we dumped these people on the street. We're still paying the price for that. For the most pa

Justice committee  The issue that I would add to that, though, is that there's little comfort to victims and families who have lost loved ones when people are sent back into the community untreated and who have not had an opportunity to engage in rehabilitation. I don't think we want to talk about

Justice committee  Correct.

Justice committee  It would depend whether we're talking about the actual sentence being enhanced legislatively or about judges imposing it.

Justice committee  The impact would be that this is additional time during which those individual offenders cannot accumulate more victims. That would mean less crime. It doesn't mean they're not going to reoffend when they get out, but at least we would have had a holiday from them.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  It can do a world of good for offenders who want the help. Let me quickly tell you, my brother-in-law is a lifer; he committed first-degree murder. He was eligible at 15 years with a “faint hope”. The two people he was co-convicted with, who were much more seriously involved in i