Justice committee  I know there is a Supreme Court decision, but I'm not a lawyer, Mr. Cotler; I'm a victim advocate. However, I believe the government would definitely have taken that case into consideration. I would trust that the government has done its homework on that.

Justice committee  By all means. That is a very important component to victims, as has been stressed. There isn't anything monetary that would ever compensate us. However, the ability to be able to seek out services when they're needed is crucial for victims. We truly believe in accountability as

Justice committee  Yes, by all means. Another thing I'd like to point out.... I'm sorry, that thought went.

Justice committee  Yes, by all means. Right from the start, when this bill started, when it came into force in 1988 it was combined. It was in Bill C-89, and there were two bills: one was the victim fine surcharge and one was victim impact statements. They were considered at that time and througho

Justice committee  I think that's the crux of the whole issue. Under the four studies that were done, this has been brought to the attention of governments for a while now. I believe the intent of this bill is to reallocate the funds. The only way it seems possible is to make it mandatory and doubl

Justice committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting our organization, Victims of Violence, to appear today on Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, on victim fine surcharges. I will briefly tell you about our organization—only half of it. Our mission is to promote a more balan

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree to a certain point. I mentioned in my brief the amount of $31.4 billion. What I might suggest is to take a look at how many individuals are coming into our country and offending and reoffending, which is quite a high number, and look at the breakdown financially. What B

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said, what we are talking about is criminals, whether they're Canadian criminals or foreign criminals, people coming into Canada from other countries. I believe that we have a very, very good judicial system in Canada, but there are a number of wrongs. There are a number of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Do you know how much marijuana comes from six marijuana plants? It's quite a bit. I think what you failed to mention is the law would take into consideration if the six marijuana plants were used for trafficking. I have a 16-year-old grandson. I certainly don't want people who a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —and that would definitely be taken into consideration and weigh differently on the sentencing.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly, I, too, was surprised as I was doing some research into Bill C-43. I was very surprised at how lax the whole process has been over the years. I definitely would agree that through Bill C-43 we would definitely reap the benefits, as law-abiding citizens of Canada. I t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. My answer to that would be that this is why, in my presentation, I mentioned the $31.4 billion. That takes into account court costs, police, and on and on. In our organization's estimation, if we had stricter laws and deportation orders, some of that money could go toward po

Citizenship and Immigration committee  From my understanding from reading the bill, I believe it would, and rightly so.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I do agree with that, by all means.