Justice committee  That is not what we were asked to do. We could do that. We could come on board with a government group from the department in question. If opposition members also come on board, we would be pleased to give you the documentation. But we are here for a very short period of time. Ho

Justice committee  Mr. Ménard, the best facts at my disposal are the police officers' testimonies. The people involved in this area, those on the front lines, are our police officers who are assisting victims and who are intercepting people committing crimes. There are also those who are trying to

Justice committee  No, not at all.

Justice committee  You would have a problem if it was a date, because I have been married for 34 years.

Justice committee  I think our police officers experience that almost every day. We see more and more violent crimes. What we used to see on American TV shows about street gangs was happening only in the States. It's happening in Canada now. But why? Those are realities. Go to Winnipeg and Montreal

Justice committee  Absolutely none.

Justice committee  They're understaffed. At an average of $1,700 a year, how can you monitor, how can you supervise, how can you make sure that those persons will not be repeat offenders? There's another thing about statistics. Years ago when I was a front line police officer, I remember reporting

Justice committee  I can't agree, although I understand what he wants to do. That's what has happened since 1996; the exception became the rule. That is not what we want to see--starting in 2006.

Justice committee  Thank you. In 1996, parliamentarians had the best of intentions. We agreed with those intentions. Why not leave it up to the judges to decide whether or not to hand down conditional sentences and community sentences instead of imprisonment? However, the problem that we have seen

Justice committee  I'd like to give an example, if I may. Before parole is granted, the level of dangerousness of individuals must be assessed in order to determine whether or not they should remain in prison and serve their whole sentence. Parole has become almost automatic. We have seen several

Justice committee  First, you seem intent on choosing the figures which you like. You take, for instance, 257,127. On the conditional sentence side there are 13,267 of them. Have you also looked at probation, charges?

Justice committee  You asked me a question, and I'd like to be able to respond. I intend to do that in full. First, I am also disappointed to know that your role in the House of Commons is not as significant as your constituents would believe. I think you are here to get legislation passed, and as

Justice committee  It is not our job to compile statistics for you, we are not statisticians. We're simply too busy putting criminals back in jail.

Justice committee  I want it to be clear that we are not against conditional sentences. We are only seeking to limit their usage. We want to ensure that they are not available to the perpetrators of certain crimes. The crimes to which I refer are serious in nature, and issuing conditional sentences

Justice committee  Mr. Murphy, that's what we see here. We're not against conditional sentencing, even though it seems that we feel strongly about certain crimes that are included in there that we think should not receive conditional sentencing. That's why for certain crimes we also asked the gover