Justice committee  Very briefly, the job of the Crown prosecutor is to present their case to the court concerning the guilt or innocence of somebody who's been charged with a crime. They represent the public interest. That encompasses, of course, the concerns of the victim, but it's not uniquely ab

Justice committee  That's a very good question. The bill introduced tried to do that. It acknowledged the increased requirement for all those in the criminal justice system to do more to support the interests and rights of victims. The Senate amended the bill and felt it could be stronger in that

Justice committee  Yes, absolutely. I mean, victim support workers are able to provide information to victims, such as copies of publication bans.

Justice committee  Based on the wording of the bill, it's for the victim or the person protected by the publication ban, and therefore not for the accused, as the minister explained.

Justice committee  It's as you wish. Perhaps I can just very quickly confirm what the minister said. Paragraph 742.1(b) is the rule that says if an offence is subject to a mandatory minimum penalty, it is not eligible for a conditional sentence, and in section 151, which Mr. Caputo referenced, it

Justice committee  As I understand it, the proposal to increase it to four years is actually to mirror one of the very few exceptions to the rule that you've outlined in the context of the prohibition order for child sex offences. The penalty there is for four years as well. However, you're absolu

Justice committee  It's a very good question. Certainly, as you know, when we provide advice to the government as public servants and as lawyers, that advice is protected, but I think you also know that providing charter advice is part and parcel of the work that we do in supporting the minister an

Justice committee  That's a difficult question to answer, because I think ultimately it will depend on how the courts interpret the duties of the managers or the owners. With the provision you already mentioned, I think it speaks very clearly to the person who has a duty to individuals under their

Justice committee  I'm going a bit by memory, but the Westray provisions did a couple of things. As my colleague spoke about, it created the ability to prosecute corporations for either negligent criminal behaviour or criminal conduct that required subjective mens rea. It did impose a duty on emplo

Justice committee  I think that's an important question. I think it speaks to the comments of Mr. Naqvi earlier in terms of how, for example, a manager and the responsibilities of a manager are laid out in the bill, and how that overlaps with somebody who isn't the senior manager, to use your term,

Justice committee  Yes, I would say that it certainly is.

Justice committee  That's a good question. Certainly, providing a definition would provide clarity, picking up on what I said earlier, to Canadians and to the public as to who these groups of people are. Just to build a bit on my colleague's statement, the concept of owner, a person who is an own

Justice committee  Maybe I'll make a couple of other comments and then perhaps turn to my colleague to augment. I think I would avoid using the word “intent”. I know you're not meaning it as deliberate because we are talking about a negligence-based offence. The mens rea for this offence is neglig

Justice committee  I think it is clear, and perhaps I can start. What I might say to help the committee—I think it's at the heart of your question—is that the failure to provide the necessaries of life, as we would generally understand them.... They would be things like.... The frontline worker pr

Public Safety committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. I could start by reminding the committee—and I think you know—that Bill C-5 did repeal a number of MMPs, including those for firearms offences, but it did not repeal MMPs for firearms offences involving prohibited or restricted firearms or wher