Justice committee  Thank you. I do, Mr. MacKenzie. Hello, Charles.

Justice committee  I'm very pleased to be given this opportunity to share my perspective on Bill C-309. In short, I think this is a progressive, measured, and responsible step towards giving the police agencies the legislative tools we need to uphold the law and maintain public safety. Having serv

Justice committee  I am simply here at the request of Mr. Richards and this committee to give evidence.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  We agree.

Justice committee  You've posed about five different questions. I'll try to cover them. You ask a lot of these brave young police officers who we put in harm's way to protect us during assemblies. It is not a desirable job for the police. Next to domestic violence calls, these are the calls we don

Justice committee  We usually take out ads. We rely on our media to explain the rules behind it, when we know there's going to be a large protest—and we know ahead of time. Vancouver has hundreds and hundreds of protests per year. Because we're the provincial capital in Victoria, we enjoy a large n

Justice committee  No. B.C. has a unique charge approval system to get people before the courts, not like other provinces have. It's simply different. But any tool, especially a tool like this, would have been extremely helpful had it been in place prior to the Vancouver incident.

Justice committee  Most groups who protest, certainly in Vancouver and Victoria, come to the police. We have meetings ahead of time. We set boundaries and guidelines. The huge majority of them are peaceful. This would simply send a message. We would do proactive marketing, if and when this legisla

Justice committee  I think so, but I wouldn't.... There are a number of reasons the charges were slow in coming.

Justice committee  Once again it depends on the circumstances. As was the case I outlined earlier, with the observations of officers who saw people getting prepared to engage in this kind of behaviour, with masks, who are weaving their way in and out of lawful assemblies, and we know what they're a

Justice committee  No, no. I think the strongest rationale, as put forward by Mr. Richards, was certainly the deterrent value and the example this would send to people who are thinking about engaging in a riot. There would be a deterrent effect so that they would not engage. I think there are a nu

Justice committee  As I mentioned in my remarks, I'm aware of New York State and other American jurisdictions. France and the United Kingdom have laws that deal with people who wear masks during assemblies and gatherings.

Justice committee  It's almost a common sense application of the law. You require identity. The courts in Canada require a pretty strict interpretation of identity to successfully prosecute. I know the efforts and the time the Vancouver police have put into identifying the rioters so far is stagger

Justice committee  You're asking me to comment in areas where I lack that depth of knowledge. I would ask you to pose those kinds of questions to a crown prosecutor. But I know from practical experience, working a hold-up detail for many years, that trying to get charges laid against people wearing