Justice committee  It's both. The first issue is if Black bodies are over-surveilled and over-policed, you're going to swoop in a number of people who are then going to be subject to the vagaries of the criminal justice system. In my example, but for an intercession by somebody who got me out of

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Naqvi. I think Ms. Beckles is the expert on that, so I'll defer to her. My only comment would be to repeat what Chief Arcand said, because I'm really aligned with it. The extent to which our criminal justice system deals with first-time offenders, especially, by

Justice committee  We completely agree. It's what leads to over-surveillance. Then when you arrest more people, it's now the justification for saying why we need to over-surveil and keep people in jail. Ms. Beckles spoke to it. It's a vicious cycle that just repeats itself.

Justice committee  Maybe I will start and then, Ms. Beckles, I'll leave you some time. In responding to that, I want to share my own personal story because of the comment Mr. Gélinas was making earlier. My family immigrated to Vancouver when I was 13. When I turned 15, I was on a date in a movie

Justice committee  The last piece of my comments, for the most part, focused on diversion. Ms. Ka Hon Chu spoke eloquently on that issue, so I won't repeat myself on that. It was actually a really great dovetail in terms of where I was going. I apologize. I didn't quite get the second question.

Justice committee  I'm sorry. I'm not sure what happened. On my end, there's a weird issue happening with the sound. What I was saying to that point was that in certain instances you have to plead guilty before you can avail yourself of potential avoidance of the mandatory minimum. In requiring th

Justice committee  I completely agree. Jackie, I will defer to you. You are much more the expert on this topic than I am.

Justice committee  Good afternoon, Chair and honourable members. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers to share our views on the bill. My name is Raphael Tachie. I'm the president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. I'm here with my colleague Jacqueline Beckles