Justice committee  In Quebec, since 2003, so we are talking about the last seven years, we have recommended that 20 young persons be sentenced that way. There is nothing that says that those 20 young persons were under the age of 18 years. The only information I can give you is that they committed

Justice committee  That is not entirely how it works. I can explain it for you. When a young person commits an offence, sometimes they are arrested some time after the offence, sometimes immediately after the offence. Crown counsel can ask that adult sentencing apply. The proceedings may last some

Justice committee  No, I didn't know that.

Justice committee  That is difficult to determine, first, we have to know what is meant by "failure". To us, the fact that a young person becomes a productive member of society, whose situation improves, does not mean that they won't have other problems at some point. So we have to specify what is

Justice committee  Unfortunately, I don't have them with me today. However, they are figures that we could provide to the committee from the studies that have been done all across Quebec.

Justice committee  I don't think it's new. I think it was already in the previous act.

Justice committee  The act already allowed for young people to be referred to agencies in the community, and in fact that is something that is done quite frequently in Quebec.

Justice committee  There is no problem.

Justice committee  Personally, I advocate as much flexibility as possible, the greatest possible discretion for judges, and focusing on factors other than just the type of offence, regardless of whether we change it from "serious violent offence" to "serious offence". I don't think the act necessar

Justice committee  My answer is this. If we create a hierarchy of principles and put proportionality on the top rung, the judge will have to look first at proportionality and then at prevention, in making decisions. I know that prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration are always included in the

Justice committee  In Quebec, there is a framework agreement between the youth centres and alternative justice organizations. The framework agreement provides for diversion measures. So these are sanctions imposed outside the justice system. The first measure that must be considered is victim compe

Justice committee  We regularly receive delegations at the Centre jeunesse de Montréal, as do other youth centres in the province, from European countries, South America and Africa. They come to see exactly what we do in dealing with young offenders, in terms of rehabilitation. Last March, I went

Justice committee  We are starting to make ourselves known a little outside Quebec. I think a lot of people outside Quebec, in Canada, have the same opinions as us, particularly people who work with youth offenders. We are in contact. I have realized, through my role in the Child Welfare League of

Justice committee  In my experience as a worker on the ground, and that is really how I define myself, when a decision is made by a judge about an offence, the nature and circumstances of the offence are important, but we want the decision to be one what will give the young person an incentive to c

Justice committee  Yes, the youth crime statistics show that our model is the right one, if I may say so.