Public Safety committee  It may very well. I'd need to see those regulations and study those regulations, but I think it very well could. But there are still massive problems that exist beyond just the random breath testing in this bill that I would really commend this committee to take a deep study of.

Public Safety committee  That will be an issue that is raised, but for all intents and purposes it's an issue that will not be raised, and in my opinion it will not be successful. It provides no solace to individuals who will inevitably be targeted due to this provision.

Public Safety committee  Briefly, the proposition that random testing won't really be random is a common-sense proposition that plays out on our streets on a daily basis. To suggest that defences can be raised based on non-randomness because of an officer's history or other evidentiary matters often plac

Public Safety committee  I'll try to be as efficient as that. I guess the first step is to dispense with my normal pleasantries and get right to the heart of things. This is a massive bill, and we won't have enough time to cover everything. I submitted a 32-page brief. I decided to one-up my friends he

Justice committee  That's right. There can be that negative impact, and there is also the risk which I think must always be guarded against, meting out justice and the appropriate penalties based on specific victims. I think there's been a right move to increase victims' rights, informational right

Justice committee  It doesn't sound right. There are definitely areas that are inappropriate to be included in the victim impact statement, and there is lots of case law that deals with that. In my experience in court, there is very little if no editing or cross-examination—although it can be done,

Justice committee  There could be issues with respect to the breadth and application of the bill. There aren't the issues that we've seen in the past around cruel and unusual punishment and mandatory minimum sentences, so the charter concerns decrease somewhat in that respect. Certainly, with res

Justice committee  In section 718 of the Criminal Code, there's a list of aggravating circumstances. If indeed the goal of the bill is to drive home a point, to send a message, and to remind the judiciary to make sure that this is not only considered but explicitly recognized, I think aggravating f

Justice committee  For sure. One could imagine a situation where someone is kidnapped, someone is held hostage, someone is forcibly confined, and one act is inflicted upon them that leads to a number of charges, including the torture charge. Then you could have the perverse inverse of what I was ta

Justice committee  I would think so. Then you could have a person who is responsible for inflicting tremendous harm, and I think that the situation that you described would not do much for the victim or for public confidence in the justice system, and it may lead to some absurd results.

Justice committee  Yes, that's quite possible. That could happen at an early stage or at a late stage. It might happen after a victim has already testified at a preliminary hearing. It might happen before a victim has testified at a preliminary hearing. It may be driven by such factors as the stigm

Justice committee  On the practical impacts, unlike the statutory interpretation, I don't think I'm in a position to give you evidence about what would be preferable. It seems like it's either one of two, either you want them so different that they are easy to tell apart, or so similar that it mak

Justice committee  That is a reality of how things might play out in court, and I don't think that our justice system—

Justice committee  I think the more likely scenario is that a number of charges are proceeded on, including the torture charge. The situation as described previously could arise and would be very troubling. It could happen, but I think an equally troubling situation is someone who is charged with a

Justice committee  I think that is a fair characterization, which is one of the reasons that the suggestion of amending the bill to lower the punishment from life to 14 years seems incongruous with the purpose of the bill, when you look at it that way. That is not only a fair characterization, but