Justice committee  This speaks to what's been done since their incarceration to mitigate the risk and whether or not the offender is actually actively looking to address the risk factors. That's a part of the consideration the board is looking at in terms of the program, whether or not the offender

Justice committee  No. I agree with Mr. Head in the sense that, in the conditional release process and system, the fundamentals are public safety and looking at the specific case factors, and as an offender goes through the sentence, whether or not some of those factors have changed. Again, public

Justice committee  I have nothing further, really, to comment on.

Justice committee  I'm not in a position to comment on specific cases, but again, we can understand that victims can find hearings very difficult. We also have victims, though, who are interested in attending the hearings. Again, every victim is different, but I can't comment on the specific case y

Justice committee  I'm probably not in a position to debate the position of the board with respect to cabinet. It's probably beyond my ability in my role here at the committee.

Justice committee  Our board members undergo rigorous training as part of their induction, both at national office and in the regions. They're trained on various aspects of the legislation, our policies, our procedures, risk assessment, and the various actuarial tools, so they undergo a very rigoro

Justice committee  I don't have any personal experience dealing with those types of victims, but I think generally we can comprehend how difficult it can be for victims, who are at a hearing, to listen to the offender speak about the offences and to have to listen to aspects of the offence that hav

Justice committee  I know of victims who have had some serious experiences, cases where family members have been murdered, but I wouldn't be able to specifically relate their personal experience, no.

Justice committee  Typically we look to provide as much notice as possible in advance of the hearing, because there is also the justice fund, which enables victims to be compensated for the travel that's required. In some instances, victims might be in other regions or other provinces, so we try to

Justice committee  We conducted a questionnaire back in 2007 about our services in general. When we looked at the results, we saw it came out fairly positive. Again our RCOs work with the victims one on one, so if there are any questions or issues that they have, they work specifically with our sta

Justice committee  In general, they had some questions about the legislation. There were instances where they weren't sure with regard to providing a statement and some of the limitations of the information sharing. For instance—again, this is part of the principles of natural justice—the legislati

Justice committee  Every case is very different, because there are different types of reviews the board would conduct, and whether or not a hearing is required is another factor that would be taken into consideration. Also, with respect to hearings and/or reviews, in certain circumstances the offen

Justice committee  Our board is an independent administrative tribunal. There's a very rigorous competitive process that prospective board members have to go through, and upon qualifying through that process they're appointed as Governor-in-Council appointees. We're responsible to the Canadian pu

Justice committee  As I mentioned before, the legislation says that victims can receive specific types of information. The process would be that a victim would register with the board or the Correctional Service of Canada to receive information about the offender's sentence—length of sentence, elig

Justice committee  Generally, again, with respect to my opening comments, for us, the Parole Board doesn't set the eligibility periods. For us, in these circumstances, the board would see these offenders for full parole reviews at a later period of time.