Justice committee  I'm not familiar with the Ottawa situation that you're describing, but in my own service, we had a Crown embedded in our service for that specific purpose, in Vancouver. In my experience, it was hugely beneficial. You ended up with better outcomes because you had communication.

Justice committee  I'm not suggesting it would be easy. I realize that the federal government has a role and that provinces also have a role. That's one of the challenges in this country, generally speaking. My friend here alluded to it in terms of data collection, so that we can better understand the scope of the issue and what the issues are.

Justice committee  It could certainly be something that could flow from our federal, provincial and territorial ministers' meetings. They meet regularly. They do come up with policy direction from those meetings. People smarter than I am could come up with some kind of a legislative amendment. This is something that we can do, whether it's with respect to what I suggested around creating a definition or it's using the existing provisions around sureties and making sure that there is a consequence so that it's not a free pass, particularly where they know these breaches are occurring.

Justice committee  Absolutely. Electronic monitoring is an area in which I think we could do a better job. Electronic monitoring is used differently by different provinces, with varying degrees of success. There's lots of technology out there that we can now utilize better to track and to ensure that people are complying with conditions when they are released on bail.

Justice committee  From my perspective, police officers are using that tool. We are exercising those authorities more frequently now than ever before, but we're talking about a type of offender who's different from what I've made submissions on. I accept my friend's submissions with respect to being careful not to create situations where people lose their jobs or that have a significant impact, but that's not what I'm talking about here.

Justice committee  There are not the resources. There is no police service right now that has the capacity to, in a meaningful way, track a violent offender released on bail to ensure they're complying with their conditions. To do that requires a significant allocation of resources and it has a significant impact on budgets.

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. That's why one recommendation of ours is to somehow define what a repeat violent offender is and to create that framework that adjudicators presiding over these bail hearings can operate within, so we are addressing that specific concern. I want to emphasize that we are talking about repeat violent offenders.

Justice committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today on behalf of the almost 60,000 members of the Canadian Police Association. For those of you who might not be familiar, the CPA is Canada's largest law enforcement advocacy organization, with members serving in each of your ridings and representing local police associations from coast to coast to coast.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. I think Chief Sloly said it very well. We put police officers, men and women, in these untenable situations, where we ask them to do too much. It's particularly a challenge in our more rural and remote parts of the country where there is no access to service and support.

Public Safety committee  I can jump in. In terms of the percentages that Chief McFee referred to, he's absolutely right. The vast majority of our calls are driven by issues related to mental health and addictions. The problem is that if the police don't respond to many of those calls, they can potentially turn into more serious crimes.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I'd like to thank you for inviting me to participate today as you continue your important study into systemic racism in policing services in Canada. I note there are some new faces at the table since my last appearance, so very briefly, for those who may not be familiar, I’m appearing today as the president of the Canadian Police Association, which is the largest policing advocacy organization in Canada, representing more than 55,000 front-line civilian and sworn law enforcement personnel from coast to coast to coast.

Health committee  Yes, that's a significant concern for our members. I think police officers who are working in larger urban centres have access to more resources and to worker services with more capacity; however, it becomes a much bigger challenge for police officers and personnel who are working in more rural and remote environments.

Health committee  Yes, through this pandemic we have seen some changes to crime patterns. We are certainly seeing decreases in some areas—your typical traffic offences, residential B and Es—but increases in terms of violent crime and domestic violence. Commercial B and Es are a significant problem in most cities across the country.

Health committee  The best way I can answer that question is to use my own home service as an example. We have seconded local police officers to an integrated unit, led by the RCMP, to manage those quarantine situations in the province of British Columbia. I believe, although I'm not a 100% sure, the same thing has happened in every province.

Health committee  That's an issue, and I'm glad you asked the question, because one of the challenges we are having across jurisdictions is knowing not only where people on the front line—these are officers who are working every day interacting with people—are quarantined, or more importantly, arguably, for my members from a health and safety perspective, we're not getting information about where people who are infected are residing.