Justice committee  Looking at racialized and indigenous persons and women in particular, they are not necessarily the ones who commit the most violent crimes. As to the Black community, firearms are sometimes involved. I will not elaborate on that however. Let us begin with the facts. In the figures I mentioned, we see that reincarceration is most often the result of non-compliance with bail conditions.

Justice committee  I'm not sure I can answer that question. I can tell you, however, that a person of no fixed address, with little money and who is unable to communicate easily with their lawyer will be at greater risk of breaching their bail conditions and failing to appear in court. As a result, that person will at some point breach their conditions and be incarcerated.

Justice committee  No, that is not what I would tell them. I would say they have to do two things. First, they have to take stock of the reality of the situation. Second, they have to be sure about what can be done up front. The individuals facing such charges have a record that needs to be considered.

Justice committee  I would like to pick up on what Minister Lametti said about a commission that would review applications from individuals who claim they are the victims of a miscarriage of justice. When a person is in a situation they want to get out of, they will plead guilty to any favourable offer, even if they did not commit the offence in question.

Justice committee  Thank you very much for the question. To begin, I agree with Mr. Spratt’s earlier comments since the reality in Quebec is indeed the way he described it. Let me now provide a more specific answer. I think the importance of information is overlooked, that is, that there is unfortunately a tendency to focus on specific cases.

Justice committee  On behalf of the association of prison law lawyers of Quebec, I wish to thank the committee for inviting us. In Quebec, prison law lawyers are a small group who, for more thank 30 years, have represented persons in detention, in prisons and penitentiaries alike. Today, I will focus on individuals in detention awaiting court proceedings, because these are people who have been denied bail or who have waived bail.