Justice committee  It would appear to suggest, with the current bill, that the three items must be interpreted in terms of protection of the public--short-term, long-term, medium, all sorts of goals.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  No, they remain.

Justice committee  No.

Justice committee  That's the same in Nova Scotia. The treatment program, which is excellent for youth in Nova Scotia, is the same at the youth detention facility, whether you're on detention or not. Granted, if you're only there for a few weeks it doesn't get as much of a chance to get going, but

Justice committee  That's absolutely correct.

Justice committee  None. There was nothing. We saw it when the public saw it, on March 16.

Justice committee  Just to be clear, regarding the offences I listed, there isn't just a presumption against detention, but they are excluded completely. There are two ways you could do it. You could open the availability of pre-trial detention to every offence, because the test, as it's set out f

Justice committee  It certainly would have been another methodology. Justice Nunn's report specifically says it should be a primary goal of the act.

Justice committee  Sorry, it's one of the primary goals of the act. You're right. That could have been reflected. There are certainly a variety of ways to do it. Mr. Greening may have a point.

Justice committee  No, we haven't drafted anything along those lines. I would like to think that the fact that the act still includes principles that talk about rehabilitation and reintegration and that section 39 still includes clauses that say custody is still essentially the last resort will co

Justice committee  Our concern with the pre-trial detention provision is that it takes us so far, but then it stops with respect to certain offences and doesn't allow the provinces to deal at all with certain offences in terms of pre-trial detention. That's our grave concern, because those are the

Justice committee  I would agree. If I were a counsel in court, I would suggest that under paragraph 3(1)(a) the court is to assess (i) through (iii) in terms of overall protection of the public. I would also suggest, though, that protection of the public includes long-term protection of the public

Justice committee  Yes, please. We've kind of organized it that way, if that's all right.

Justice committee  Thank you. Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to be heard today. My name is Ron MacDonald. I come before you today as a representative of the Nova Scotia government, in my capacity as criminal law policy adviser, but also as a person who was 24 years on the front