Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Ms. Moore will look something up. What we don't have is a breakdown of, for example, the percentage of people being detained in custody pretrial versus the percentage of people being detained in custody pre-sentencing. Some of the statistics that we have speak to both those idea

Justice committee  Maybe I can give you one data point, and then we can undertake to provide additional data with regard to your question. It's a statistic that we were provided by the Toronto police. It's in a report from 2022, and it's specific to firearms offences. According to the Toronto poli

Justice committee  I know Ontario has issued guidelines on bail. I think they were specific to the COVID context. I have not done, and I don't believe our unit has done, a comprehensive search of every jurisdiction. I can point you to British Columbia and, at the federal level, the Public Prose

Justice committee  A lawyer can always try to convince a judge that one offence is more serious than another. The repeal of mandatory minimum sentences is not a— It's not only an acknowledgement that an offence is less serious. The decision to repeal mandatory minimum penalties was based on the im

Justice committee  I will say what I've said previously. I think judges and the Criminal Code provide a structure; offences involving firearms are punishable by significant maximum penalties of imprisonment. The Supreme Court, in some of its recent jurisprudence, has reaffirmed the principle that a

Justice committee  Yes. For example, I spoke to the directive of the updated guidelines that B.C. provided. They provide fairly clear instruction on when provincial prosecutors in British Columbia should request that bail be denied based on certain criteria—repeat violent offending, safety risks. I

Justice committee  I don't know if I can expand. I think Mr. Garrison probably knows quite well also. As I referenced in my opening remarks, British Columbia has for some time been concerned about the situation of repeat violent offending. This is something we have been working on with them collab

Justice committee  That's a difficult question to answer. Maybe I can answer it in a slightly different way. That specific proposal is something that we're looking at in collaboration with the provinces and territories, as you would expect. Section 95 is a broad offence. For those of you who will

Justice committee  I think it's a good thing to look at. Our one initial comment on that would be that changing a “may” to a “must” or a “may” to a “shall” in the bail process could have efficiency implications, and I expect you would have expected that as an answer. I mean, I can't tell you or the

Justice committee  We've heard that information as well, that a small percentage of people are committing a significant number of non-violent offences, often, as you said, Mr. Garrison, related to addictions or things of that nature. I think it is worth dividing up the issues in the way you have.

Justice committee  It is hard to say if it is paradoxical. However, I think the considerations are different in the context of a minimum sentence. I will give you an example. In the bail context, the reverse onuses that relate to firearms are very closely tied to the grounds for detention. A crime

Justice committee  One way that you are probably all quite familiar with is the directives that are issued by attorneys general in the provinces. We know, for example, that Ontario issued a directive on bail matters in the context of the COVID pandemic, and British Columbia has recently issued new

Justice committee  I think you're right. The court talks about the public's confidence and a well-informed citizen who understands the principles and objectives of the bail regime, but I think shocking the conscious is probably a good shortcut for describing those kinds of situations.

Justice committee  I think [Inaudible—Editor] your earlier point is that it is its own ground. It's not reserved for exceptional cases.