Public Safety committee  Sure. I'd be happy to do that.

Public Safety committee  I think a lot of things could have been improved if there had been goodwill and more of a creative way to approach these things. I mean, you can see this. I talked to a lot of prisoners during this period, and they kept asking, “Why are you putting the prisoners who are ill in th

Public Safety committee  Oh, I have a lot more, but that's okay.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the time.

Public Safety committee  Yes. We found that access to legal services has diminished during COVID, mainly because there were extremely serious lockdowns. People were confined to their cells for excessive periods of time. They weren't getting the medical treatment that they needed for other underlying cond

Public Safety committee  Regarding violence, images are more powerful. I would encourage everyone to take a look at the recently released video of the Black prisoner who was assaulted at Millhaven institution. I'd be happy to answer any questions on that. In conclusion, the failure of the Correctional S

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Chair, and committee members. It's good to be here. There are very few words to describe the current state of corrections in Canada today. Crisis, lawless, unaccountable and tragic would be some of them. In my 30 years as a lawyer I have never seen failings of this m

Public Safety committee  It's a terribly serious problem. I have been on a journey to try to learn more about it. There are many who know way more about indigenous issues than I do, but I've been speaking to many Black prisoners about the experiences they've had. One in particular, when he was 19 or 20

Public Safety committee  Sorry, it was too long an answer.

Public Safety committee  I think you have to work with each individual. I agree that some people who have experienced a lot of trauma in their past need more supports. Re-entering society takes a lot of courage and a lot of strength. If you've been hurt a lot in the past, you may not have the strongest f

Public Safety committee  I think it's extremely important. I think having adequate housing, and particularly supportive housing, for people coming out of prison is absolutely key. Ex-prisoners don't always understand that they have housing issues. If they feel they have a couch to sleep on in somebody's

Public Safety committee  I'd be happy to talk about that. I think it takes us away from the focus of this bill a bit, which is really focusing on what I would call rehabilitation and reintegration. The quantum of the penalty and how that debt to society should appropriately be discharged is probably not

Public Safety committee  It also very much compromises certain indigenous people who may be going back to communities that are rife with substance issues. It's very difficult for them to keep away from it, because it's in the same household they've been paroled to. It's a huge problem, and it's one that

Public Safety committee  Some prisoners get lucky and they get into good halfway houses and they have some needed supports, but a large chunk of them do not. They're coming out of statutory release without necessarily having preparatory programs in the prisons and without necessarily having a very good r

Public Safety committee  It's very important that whatever intervention is being provided resonates well with the individual who is receiving it. If culturally relevant healing approaches work, there should be more of them. We should be testing this to see what works for people. There are some clear in