Justice committee  I also agree with Professor Kaiser. I question whether you actually need a separate offence to achieve these policy objectives.

Justice committee  Having come from a family where my grandfather and my father and all his brothers served in both World War I and then World War II, we certainly have a lot of respect for those who have sacrificed years of their lives, and often their lives, for the values we hold dear, including

Justice committee  I'm speaking from what Mr. Woodworth described as principles of criminal law and criminal law development, which is that broad, overarching laws are generally—and we may disagree on the principle—preferable to particularistic ones. That's not to say that some particular laws don'

Justice committee  No. I'm saying it is better to have a broader category where people can see that equally valuable—

Justice committee  I say it would be better to have a general category rather than just looking at war memorials, or, preferable to me, to just use the existing mischief offence with some guidance to prosecutors and others about how it should be applied and what are aggravating and mitigating circu

Justice committee  Thank you very much. May I answer in English?

Justice committee  Thank you very much. My experience has been that—and I used to be the executive director for youth justice policy, where you have criminal accountability for young people—if you find processes by which the young person learns why the behaviour violated the law, why it upset peop

Justice committee  Certainly, yes.

Justice committee  I would think that might be extremely useful. An example of a problem with our cenotaph here in Ottawa that happened a few years ago was that it was a young student, who I think had probably had too much to drink, urinating on the War Memorial. I don't think he intended any dis

Justice committee  I would say that by making a particular offence, the message you're sending is that this is consistent with a shared or collective sense of values—that this kind of property should be held in higher esteem. Certainly, Parliament can do that. I don't think it will have any effect

Justice committee  Certainly, Parliament is able to do what it wishes because much of this is a value statement. The principle, or the way that criminal law has evolved, preferred criminal law, is to have it more principle-driven so that lots of things fit into the same category. I have no difficul

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  One offence, one rather large maximum penalty, with aggravating and mitigating factors you would want the judge to look at in order that the seriousness of the behaviour could attract a penalty proportionate to the nature of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the off

Justice committee  I absolutely agree that there is much benefit in restorative justice, alternative approaches, and some of the community-based sentencing alternatives. Certainly the mandatory minimum penalties, where your first penalty will be a fine, is probably an approach which does not lend i

Justice committee  Thank you very much. It's great to be back before the committee. As you know, the John Howard Society of Canada is a community-based charity that has a mission to support effective, just, and humane responses to the causes and consequences of crime. We're very pleased to speak