Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My colleague, Ms. Bouchard, will deliver our presentation. Before she does that, I want to alert you and committee members to an additional Justice colleague who is with us, Ms. Susan McDonald, principal researcher, from our research and stats division. Sh

Justice committee  Maybe I can start with that question. In terms of one of the earlier comments you made as to the importance of taking what's in the law and then transitioning it to application, we certainly agree with that statement. It's critically important that the laws that are developed be

Justice committee  I think we always try to find ways to support the enhancement of effective criminal justice system responses for victims. Whether that be through the work we do with FPT directors responsible for victims services, through our work with senior criminal justice officials or in coll

Justice committee  Mr. Fortin, I will answer your questions in English, as it will be faster. Section 717 of the Criminal Code does contemplate alternative measures and restorative justice processes. Those can happen at different places. They can happen pre-charge. They can happen post-charge. Th

Justice committee  I think your committee will be hearing from witnesses from the Department of National Defence, and they'll be better able to answer that question. We understand they're working diligently, and they'll be best placed to provide more information.

Justice committee  Maybe I can start, Ms. Findlay. That is a very good question, and we know it's one that's been talked about for many years. Our colleagues have already talked about the complaints processes that have been established to address concerns that rights are not being implemented at t

Justice committee  Maybe I'll start again. Again, one of the challenges with this area is the shared responsibility. As you know, different levels of government are responsible for supporting the implementation of victims services. Federally, on the justice side—and you've heard from our colleagu

Justice committee  I think we would have to get back to you with more specific information on the community organizations that we support, and the types of services that they provide in other official languages.

Justice committee  I can try to answer that. As the minister said, he looked at a number of options with respect to addressing the negative impacts that my colleague has discussed from mandatory minimum penalties. His decision was that the approach proposed in Bill C-5 was achievable and contained

Justice committee  We have a bibliography of research that we'd be happy to provide to the committee.

Justice committee  It's not really an increase in discretion for police or prosecutors, Mr. Garrison. It's an acknowledgement of the discretion that they already have, and the bill itself seeks to nudge them to use their discretion in a way that addresses the concerns in the bill. To go back to so

Justice committee  It's a good question. The use of discretion in the criminal justice system exists already in terms of the ability to dig into the improper use of discretion. There is recourse available in the context of prosecutorial discretion, abuse of process and complaints to police bodies—t

Justice committee  I think we'd have to confirm the list with you, Mr. Moore. Certainly there were a number of firearms MMPs that predated the previous administration. As you likely recall, a number of those MMPs were increased during that period of time, the five- and seven-year MMPs, for exampl

Justice committee  I'll elaborate on what Mr. Di Manno said earlier. The government did fairly extensive consultations on the ideas, the areas of reform reflected in Bill C-5. I'd point you to the Justice Canada website. There's a publication there that summarizes the consultations they did on the

Justice committee  I'll just add, Mr. Chair, for your consideration that, because it is consequential to other clauses in the bill, the decision on those other clauses would have an impact on this clause as well. For example, if you decide to pass some of the clauses that propose to repeal MMPs, th