Justice committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I have a few remarks to make. I tried to think of things that would serve as an appropriate background for consideration of sex offender sentencing and sexual crimes against children. The first point I want to make, and the one

Justice committee  You ask a number of questions within your question. I'll try to address them all as best as my memory will allow me to. The first issue you raised was one of proportionate sentencing--how serious are these crimes, and are these mandatory minimums an appropriate response to such

Justice committee  Yes. I think the cost of an assessment depends upon the infrastructure that exists. If you look at an organization like the Correctional Services of Canada, you see that they have a structured system of assessing risk and also of gathering information that other assessments of ri

Justice committee  I haven't seen any statistics. I've never seen one in my practice--a case of that nature. First of all, I don't know how often it occurs and, if it occurs, how likely somebody might be to be apprehended. I don't think it would be a common occurrence. Now, just to continue that l

Justice committee  I've never treated victims.

Justice committee  I read the briefing summary. I didn't read the whole thing, but I read excerpts.

Justice committee  I don't have a concern about that if the mandatory minimum is short.

Justice committee  I think I would have some reservations. My reason is, if the child is 16, 16 is the age of consent, so it would have to be somebody who is 15--

Justice committee  --and if it excludes age mates and close--

Justice committee  Okay with that.

Justice committee  Yes, I'm okay.

Justice committee  Yes, necessarily so, if the rate is reducing.

Justice committee  The argument is not that we shouldn't be concerned about offences against children, or that it's not a problem now, but the argument is that it's better--and it's considerably better--

Justice committee  Yes, still some distance to go.

Justice committee  No, there definitely were, but I've never treated them for the victimization.