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

Justice committee  I think you're quite right. Setting up a mandatory minimum fine creates a problem for the less affluent members of society who may run afoul of this law. So you're setting a little bit of an affluence distinction in terms of how onerous that particular penalty is. It is the same

Justice committee  Just going back to the principles, I think it is better to set the maximum and then allow a lot of latitude for the courts to determine how serious the offence actually was. We at John Howard, along with many other organizations, have problems with mandatory minimums generally, b

Justice committee  Thank you very much. As you know, the John Howard Society of Canada is a community-based charity committed to supporting effective, just, and humane responses to the causes and consequences of crime. The society has more than 60 front-line offices across the country, with many

Justice committee  May I answer in English?

Justice committee  It is a long question, but I think you've hit on something very significant, which is that I think we would all like to see more programs available for victims. The question is—I think Professor Waller pointed to this as well—how are you proposing to fund that? You point to som