Justice committee  In my experience, when we're not talking about violence and we're not talking about firearms, diversionary programs and treatment programs are extremely effective, and they are supportive of the rehabilitative nature of Canada's justice system.

Justice committee  This is a big discussion. When I mentioned in my opening remarks the whole of government, we're not talking about just federal, obviously, because your health care systems are run provincially. All of those challenges are with respect to federal and provincial funding, not to men

Justice committee  Yes. That's why in the opening remarks we mentioned how in different smaller communities there is sometimes a lack of access to precharged diversionary programs or treatment and diversionary programs. Just in terms of mental health act apprehensions, sometimes for our members tha

Justice committee  The conversation goes even further when we start talking about rehabilitation post-incarceration—whether we are looking at job training or education or vocational training—in terms of how we are funding that to make that person, who has served their sentence, a productive, happy

Justice committee  I think our membership, first off, would, say, try to find a Crown prosecutor who would lay the charge of assault of a police officer on the one hand. There is that. Second, as for actually going to trial and having that, in today's underfunded and over-taxed judicial system, I

Justice committee  I think from a global perspective we have to look at where Canada's justice system is focused. I did mention it in one of my other responses. Canada's justice system is focused on a rehabilitative set-up. It is not based on incarceration. It's based on rehabilitation, so if we're

Justice committee  I agree with you. I did spend a lot of time with restorative justice folks in the early years of my career and I support it 100%. I think it's a fantastic program, whether it's a pre-charge diversion program or a post-charge diversion program, or even just restorative justice to

Justice committee  Bluntly put, it's lack of resources applied to this problem. I mean, we share the longest undefended border in the world with the largest manufacturer of small arms. If we're going to take gun safety and gun trafficking seriously, we need to look at how we're resourcing that part

Public Safety committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to appear today. My name is Brian Sauvé and I'm the president of the National Police Federation, the certified bargaining agent representing close to 20,000 members of the RCMP across Canada. Firearms violence is a complex issue that requ

Public Safety committee  I can. I will start by sitting back and saying that every police officer across Canada, especially the membership of the RCMP, is fairly non-partisan. They will uphold and enforce the laws that are enacted by the legislature and interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada. In this

Public Safety committee  I would suspect they will. You are adding a job to police officers across Canada.

Public Safety committee  I'm not a gun guy. You would have to speak to an expert on that who analyzes gun crime in Canada. It's not really for me to answer.

Public Safety committee  It's going to place a greater responsibility on the RCMP to expand their training capacity, and ultimately that's going to put us in the position of asking the RCMP to have government-approved or RCMP-approved training facilities across Canada. There is that component to it versu

Public Safety committee  Yes, police are responding, and they do take firearm calls very seriously. However, from our membership's perspective, anything that can be done to improve the safety of victims of crime is a good thing. Now, is using a red flag, yellow flag and green flag the right system? I do

Public Safety committee  Obviously that's a good question. I think it's a discussion point that this legislation overlooks. We have said on a number of occasions that police services in Canada, including the RCMP, are operating at minimal levels already. We're having challenges recruiting, we're having