Justice committee  One of the benefits, absolutely, is the fact that it's easy to get everyone in the same place at the same time. People don't necessarily have to travel from far distances. One of the other benefits we hear from judges is the ability to see everyone's faces at the same time. Ofte

Justice committee  In our experience, the resources that are required to run the courtroom, the staffing and the judges, don't change just because we've removed it from a physical courtroom to a virtual one. The problem isn't the courtroom case, then; it's the people who need to be in the courtroom

Justice committee  Madam Chair, I'm happy to address this. I can say that we really do applaud the government for introducing these changes to conditional sentences. I think they're going to make a huge difference. It takes $330 a day, in fact, on average, about $100,000 a year, to house an inma

Justice committee  Madam Chair, COVID really has been a blessing in some ways when it comes to the technological advances in our justice system. We can now file documentation digitally, we can conduct court appearances digitally, and we don't need to drive to court to pick up evidence packages, whi

Justice committee  Yes. What I'd also say is that I've touched on a few points here, a few barriers, but there are other ones as well. The unavailability, right now, of conditional sentences for many offences, like fraud offences.... I know that's something the government is trying to reintroduce

Justice committee  Mr. Lewis, it really depends on who's initiating the offence in the first place. If it's the province that's enacting some sort of bylaw infraction, that's going to end up in the provincial system. If it's some sort of piece of federal legislation that's being violated, that's go

Justice committee  I'm going to pass this one to my colleague Mr. Struthers. I'm sure he will have some things to say about the importance of Zoom trials and the ability to accommodate those trials.

Justice committee  Mr. Lewis, what I can say is that the courts don't just have this ceiling that, once it's breached, is an automatic violation of somebody's charter rights. We have to look at the reason why this ceiling was breached. If the case takes too long, we look at why it took too long. A

Justice committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair, vice-chairs and honourable members. Criminal cases are more complex and consume greater court resources than ever before. We all know that lengthy court delays can violate an accused person's constitutionally protected right to a trial in a reasonabl