Public Safety committee  No, I'm sorry. I can't tell you that. I could probably go back and review the report and jog my memory. I have to apologize for that vagueness, but I was only made aware of this invitation on Friday, so I haven't been able to come properly prepared. That's not much of an answer;

Public Safety committee  Could I ask first that I receive the question in a specific form so that I can give it my attention? I'm not sure that I can remember precisely what it is that you would like me to deal with, but perhaps your clerk could paraphrase the questions I've been asked, and I will respon

Public Safety committee  As long as the difficulty we experienced is recognized, I'm not here to say that a suggestion that we made is the only one. What the program lacked in our view was independence in assessing who was eligible for witness protection. In certain cases, it was used by particular offic

Public Safety committee  I can't identify that particularly as a problem. I defer to Professor Dandurand, who was a witness at our inquiry and is very knowledgeable on the subject. So I can't quarrel with anything he said. It's just that I come back to the independence required in certain cases as to who

Public Safety committee  I don't think there's any one solution that's perfect. What you suggest is an improvement over what we experienced in reviewing witness protection in the Air India inquiry. To the extent that some division of the RCMP can remain independent of the enforcement so that they can o

Public Safety committee  Thank you. It's a little earlier out here than it is down there, so you'll have to pardon me if I'm a little sleepy. I don't have a great deal to say on the new legislation, because I was unaware until Friday of last week that I had been asked to appear. I would say that when I

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  That would be the hope, but experience shows that the severity of the crime seldom acts as a deterrent, because there's a philosophy that says the criminal doesn't believe he'll be caught. It's interesting to look at the range of sentences for kidnapping in our judicial history

Justice committee  No, I think your general statement covers it. I'm getting off the point a little, but in some states in the United States, the jury determines the sentence. For instance, when it comes to capital punishment, the question will go to the jury as to whether or not it should be lif

Justice committee  Yes. That's true. A highly publicized case recently in Ontario is an example of that.

Justice committee  So long as you observe the requirements of the Charter, that's right.

Justice committee  It would make sense to me, but it would not address the question of minimum sentence for, let's call it, commercial kidnapping. With a minimum sentence you're boxing in the judiciary, but you're also providing a motive for the kidnapper to perhaps act very viciously and do someth

Justice committee  I'm not aware of many minimum sentences, but I haven't studied the question, so I don't know. I'm more familiar with the importing of drugs and the jurisprudence that was discussed in that case. Nobody gets very excited about a minimum sentence of seven days for, say, drunken dr

Justice committee  I think so. There's no magic bullet, as the expression goes. But aggravating circumstances moves the charge to a different level, and the judge has to consider it. In Alberta, they developed a minimum starting point for serious sexual assault, and the court of appeal told the t

Justice committee  The experience with minimum sentences has not been very good, particularly in the United States. There have been cases, one in particular, where a federally appointed judge felt the independence of the judiciary was compromised by the minimum sentence. He resigned and campaigned