Justice committee  I really think the information about the accused's or the offender's mental health can affect two elements of the judge's sentencing and lead to better sentencing—fairer, just, and more humane sentencing. The first has to do with whether or not there is some limited moral blamew

Justice committee  I think one would be the idea of saying that the information should be relevant to the purposes and principles of sentencing for the accused; that it has to apply to the individual's case. Also, as I indicated I think the individual has to consent to having that information broug

Justice committee  You're raising a very interesting question. It's somewhat difficult to determine. I know that some provinces are much further advanced on certain issues that would be relevant to sentencing; for example, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Some provinces really understand what it do

Justice committee  I believe so. As I pointed out, the ones who I think have really slipped through the cracks are the ones who are self-representing and are completely disoriented. It's awkward for everyone in the process. If there were a pre-sentence report that indicated even what was evident at

Justice committee  Yes. Certainly the John Howard believes that individuals need to consent to treatment and therapy. If people consented, and it was part of their terms of release that they had to keep on their anti-psychotic drugs, it would be very important that they respected that while they we

Justice committee  I would look at the results, which are a huge number of people defaulting into the criminal justice system with significant mental health issues. I'm not talking about anxiety issues or some of the more minor issues in the DSM-IV. These people are not oriented to their environmen

Justice committee  Thank you. I would like to express my appreciation for your inviting the John Howard Society to share our concerns and perspective on Bill C-375. As many of you know, the John Howard Societies are charities providing services in more than 60 communities across Canada, and we ar

Justice committee  Absolutely, and I'm not saying there should be no test. I'm saying that there should be a test that is an accurate test of impairment—something that tests perception, reflexes, things such as that.

Justice committee  I think the world of technology is such that you could have a program that tests how quickly people respond to stimulus, how quickly they...just by hitting a computer screen. How long does it take you to hit the button after something flashes yellow? If you're impaired with marij

Justice committee  I think there's nothing wrong with the challenge per se. I think there would be something unfortunate if the challenge were successful and it was found out that the framework and all the education of the enforcement officers was premised on something that didn't hold up against t

Justice committee  I think you could certainly advance your section 1 argument. If you're asking me what my personal opinion is, I'd like to take a look at the section 1 evidence that's being tendered. I'm not aware of it. When you start to go down a slippery slope to say that the social objective

Justice committee  What I understand is that among people who are acclimatized and use a lot of marijuana, the level of impairment is considerably less than that of people who are occasional users. People whose bodies have not adjusted to this use of marijuana would be more impaired with a lesser d

Justice committee  I read with interest the Canadian Bar Association's brief on this, when they indicated that they thought there would be charter issues raised. I feel that they are absolutely correct. The reason is that this set of people who get caught tend not to be the disenfranchised group. Y

Justice committee  Okay.

Justice committee  I did not mention it. I should have mentioned it in terms of issues that will be subject to challenge in the litigation process, and that will slow the process and the court process down. I have less of a difficulty with the mandatory breath testing than the mandatory blood test