Justice committee  I think it's very important, when the federal government starts to bring in legislation such as Bill C-5, that there is funding available to the provinces to be able to create the programs that are necessary. The Department of Justice is generally very good at often providing fun

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. It is a very important one. It is true that in some communities the resources that might be necessary are not present. We don't want to assume that just because it's a small community, an indigenous community, a reserve community, that there are not r

Justice committee  There's no question that many of the individuals who are involved in low-level drug trafficking and drug-possession cases are addicts themselves. Jailing them does not work. We know that from our work. We operate and have operated our criminal diversion program since 1991, which

Justice committee  I can only speak to the places where we have programs. Yes, there are programs out there, but there needs to be a commitment—if the expectation of police is that they're going to release individuals through programs—that there are programs out there. Again, the question of fundin

Justice committee  There are a number of initiatives. I know that the submission from the Elizabeth Fry Society, for example, talks about information available to judges to come up with proper sentences. The Gladue reports, which you, Mr. Brock, will be familiar with, are one of the challenges fac

Justice committee  Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak about Bill C-5. As I begin my submission, I want to note that while the English name of our organization is Aboriginal Legal Services, our Anishnabemoin name, given to us by elder Jackie Lavalley,

Public Safety committee  The word “elder” gets used a lot. When it's used in a professional sense, it has a different meaning. One of the difficulties we have is that a correctional institution may have an institutional elder, and that's an elder that the correctional institution says is an elder. That's

Public Safety committee  I've been contacted by people, very well-meaning people, who say, “Give me the list of elders.” It's not analogous to religious leaders. What it means is that the institution can provide what the institution provides, but it has to realize that is not the response to an individ

Public Safety committee  The bill as currently constructed doesn't change the situation at all. I don't think we could expect different results if this bill were passed in its current form.

Public Safety committee  First, I think, Corrections has to figure out how they want to deliver services. One of the problems is that Corrections likes to deliver services in a particular way. Take the question about FASD. If you have FASD, you are not going to work well in group settings. You're not goi

Public Safety committee  I think the other issue that has to be balanced here is that these individuals are very vulnerable and they need a process that is relatively quick. I agree with Debra that the courts have a lot of advantages, but the difficulty with courts is that things quickly turn into incred

Public Safety committee  You've raised an important point. People with FASD are often much more sensitive to external stimulation, so they often overreact. I am regularly in touch with a particular inmate with FASD. He said he was in an institution where, when the guards came in, they said, “Okay, we're

Public Safety committee  Let Debra start.

Public Safety committee  This is the point of having independent oversight. The decision of the head gets reviewed, and there is an opportunity to raise questions about where the appropriate placement of the individual is. There may be a need to call upon mental health professionals, but the important th

Public Safety committee  The group is called Thunder Woman Healing Lodge.