Justice committee  There you go. Thank you very much. In fact we actually do take a two-pronged approach here. We have a drug section that particularly targets organized crime, particularly targets high-level distribution organizations in Ontario, in Canada, and in the United States. In fact it wa

Justice committee  Sure. Actually, first I do want to mention the fact that it was, for us, very important that it was identified in the legislation, under the factors that must be taken into account, that “the production constituted a potential public safety hazard in a residential area”. We often

Justice committee  Absolutely. In fact, I think one person referred one time to the fact that it's unlawful to have a child in a car while you're smoking a cigarette, and you could easily be charged and convicted. But the same child could be in a house where they have a grow-op or a crystal meth la

Justice committee  Thank you very much. That's interesting, because some of the folks I speak to both at the detention centre and at a local treatment centre called Harvest House have extensive criminal records, and often, in fact, at least some of that criminal record is for trafficking. I think

Justice committee  Thank you very much. First, I will talk about some of the issues we had here. I'll be honest, I sent some of my officers from this city to East Hastings Street to actually see what happens when drugs become almost legalized. From my perspective, I don't think that's a success st

Justice committee  From my perspective, it plays a very high role. Even in the last 15 months during which we have attacked the street-level crack-cocaine dealing, particularly in certain parts of the city, we have still pushed as many people as we can, from a capacity perspective, into drug treatm

Justice committee  Yes, thank you very much. I'll do the first piece, if you don't mind, on how we see it as a crime prevention tool, and then I'm going to refer to Staff Sergeant Gauthier, if that's okay. When I first came here, I did refer to a drug treatment centre as the greatest crime preve

Justice committee  That's true. I'm also not talking about a crack cocaine addict who lives on the street or lives under the bridge on Wellington. This legislation doesn't talk about that. In fact it talks about high-level drug distribution, or those who are targeting the specific areas we're con

Justice committee  There are two things, actually. First, the vast majority of cities and provinces in this country do not have the capacity to handle those who are willing to do treatment voluntarily, to be clear. Second, I can talk for both the head of Rideauwood and the head of the Dave Smith

Justice committee  Thank you very much, and thank you for inviting us today. I have Staff Sergeant Pierre Gauthier with me, as well as the NCOIC of the drug section for the Ottawa Police Service. From our police service perspective there are a number of areas where we believe the legislation is