Justice committee  I would have to say that I think some of the hybridization is actually a good thing that will decrease delays, particularly when it comes to my practice area of impaired driving causing bodily harm offences. It's more likely to lead to resolutions, I think, in circumstances where

Justice committee  Yes, absolutely.

Justice committee  One of the studies that I cited there came from the U.S. National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, the Women of Colour Network, which looked at the issue of incarcerating people accused of domestic violence and found that it did lead to under-reporting. That's because in lot

Justice committee  I don't think so, because you have to take into consideration the nature of the underlying allegation and the prior conviction, and how serious the previous conviction was in relation to the second incident—whether it's an escalation of behaviour, what role the complainant had in

Justice committee  I do. I don't deal with jury trials in my practice, but I did pay a lot of attention to the controversial trials last spring. I've also paid some attention to the peremptory challenge process in the United States and what takes place there in relation to peremptory challenges. I

Justice committee  I do agree. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Spratt. It does have the effect of eliminating diversity, because you can't use your challenges to create a more diverse, integrated jury and to create a jury that better represents society when you have a selection from people who are

Justice committee  Yes. In British Columbia, we've seen the erosion of cross-examination through our immediate roadside prohibition scheme. I have personally dealt with cases in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on two occasions where police testimony by affidavit, through that mechanism, has

Justice committee  Yes. I apologize.

Justice committee  In our brief, I included a quote from the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Innisfil Township v. Vespra Township about the importance of cross-examination. It's on page 9 of our brief. It refers to the fact that “the adversarial system, founded on cross-examination and the

Justice committee  From a practical perspective of being a defence lawyer and advising your client, let's say a case comes to you on something that you're not super familiar with and you resort to the Criminal Code to try to give an answer really quickly to somebody who's saying “What am I looking

Justice committee  I think this is very different from Ewanchuk, because it relies on an absence of evidence of actual consent. The way the wording is provided is where “there is no evidence” of actual consent, either “by words” or by actions on the part of the person who would be giving the consen

Justice committee  If I could jump in on that as well, one concern that arises there, too, as expressed by the previous panel, is this issue that the disclosure obligation is for a record that's going to be related to any witness, which arguably includes the accused themselves. You can read that i

Justice committee  Thank you. On my behalf and that of my colleague, Ms. Leamon, I'd like to thank the committee for having us here today. I'm going to deal with the provisions of Bill C-51 that address the sexual assault changes to the law. In particular, one of the elements that concern us is

Justice committee  I made the point earlier about the officer in British Columbia who was charged and convicted of obstruction for doing just that, but I find in my interviews with my clients it doesn't come up often because it doesn't occur that often. Most people who go out and drink aren't enga

Justice committee  The difference is I agree that the measures in the bill will make it more likely that people will get caught and also more likely that people will be convicted, but I disagree that it will have an effect on the minds of people when they are in the moment, because there's a thing