Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for the invitation to appear here today. My name is Ursula Hendel, and I'm the president of the Association of Justice Counsel representing about 2,600 federal lawyers, including the prosecutors responsible for conducting sexual assault prosecutions in Canada'

Status of Women committee  I can't speak to what's available to judges. For what's available to prosecutors, it certainly improved quite a bit since I first came onto the scene in 1997, 20 years ago. We still have a lot more we could do, though. There's so little time, and so much to learn. Some of it is a

Status of Women committee  I think I would leave comments about the likely constitutionality to the experts, the professors on the panel.

Status of Women committee  Those of us who work in the justice system really can improve a lot; there's a lot of work to do. I think there's a resistance among certain elements of the bench and bar to the sort of soft psychology whereby we evidence lawyers are supposed to be charter experts, are supposed t

Status of Women committee  Yes. I think it's changing and that there's more of an openness, but there is also a sense of isolation. We're very guarded. We're not the victims' lawyers, and there's a tendency for complainants to see us as their lawyer. We have to guard against that, because it's problematic.

Status of Women committee  I completely agree. You've heard me make my pitch for training for prosectors, but I think the front lines are on the police. If victims don't feel safe enough to report in the first place, all the training that the judges and prosectors have will go for naught. There's a complet

Status of Women committee  I think the only way to make sure that it will happen is to make it mandatory.

Status of Women committee  I think it goes back to what I said about how the trier of fact is supposed to assess credibility and reliability using common sense and ordinary experience. That isn't anything any of us are taught in law school. It's supposed to come to us naturally. That's a 500-year-old appro

Status of Women committee  I'm sensitive to the concern. There are risks. Certainly the last thing I would want to see is a ground of appeal generated as a result of some requirement that someone has indicated wasn't complied with. I'd be sensitive to the degree to which record-keeping is done. I think the

Human Resources committee  Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here today. The Association of Justice Counsel, or the AJC, is the bargaining agent for approximately 2,600 lawyers who are employed by the Government of Canada. I was pleased to hear the President of the Treasury Board acknowledge to you last

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Good evening, everyone. I'm Ursula Hendel, and I'm the president of the Association of Justice Counsel. It is always a pleasure to appear in committee, but particularly so for me today, because the issue of delay in the criminal justice system is one of extreme importance to me

Justice committee  The concept behind hybridization was to allow for flexibility. In some jurisdictions the superior courts are more congested and in others the provincial courts are more congested. I think the thinking behind the bill was that allowing more offences to be hybridized would give the

Justice committee  That's right. One of the chiefs of police testified that police already have discretion not to charge and already exercise it. As prosecutors, we also already have discretion in the code to bring somebody back before the bail court and seek changes to the person's bail conditions

Justice committee  How long do I have?