Justice committee  I'm not against recommendation 20 in the sense that I think protection of the public is an important idea. However, I'm concerned about the specific wording of paragraph 3(1)(a). Protection of the public is certainly one of the important aspects, and in fact one could argue it's

Justice committee  I think Quebec has had a different approach to a whole range of child-related issues over the past few decades. When this act came into force, there was concern that it might change the approach in Quebec. In fact, while the legislation constrains judges all across Canada, Quebec

Justice committee  I should say that the provisions around the use of extrajudicial measures for diversion have been one of the real hallmarks of success of this legislation. As a country, we've moved a lot of less serious offenders out of the courts and are dealing with them in programs. As it so

Justice committee  Thank you. It's a privilege to be invited back here. I was here last June and I presented a brief, and I understand you have copies of that brief. Having been here before, I will say a few words by way of introduction. I am a law professor, and I specialize in a range of issues

Justice committee  I think there is a significant body of research about aboriginal youth and their overrepresentation in the youth justice system. On a national and provincial basis, we have Stats Canada data that breaks it down by aboriginal status in every province and compares the absolute rate

Justice committee  Thank you for the opportunity, because I didn't address it. I think in part it has to do with what we see as the role of Parliament as opposed to the professionals who are implementing the act, whether they're police officers or crowns. What's the message that we want to send to

Justice committee  I think that is probably correct. One of the things I would say is that it's always interesting. As a researcher, I've been invited to a number of these hearings, and Parliament...as a group, you have a certain set of ideas. Judges may, five years later, find that it's not going

Justice committee  Statistics Canada doesn't keep that kind of data.

Justice committee  It only keeps it by aboriginal status, and by the way, aboriginal youth are vastly overrepresented in the youth justice system. There are individual studies, population studies, at specific facilities and so on that certainly reveal that the rate of detention of particularly Af

Justice committee  I think there is no doubt that some of these changes will disproportionately affect disadvantaged youth broadly, including on the basis of race, aboriginal status, and certain visible minority groups. In fact, one of the tragic ironies of this legislation is that as we've seen ra

Justice committee  As mentioned, I appeared before the Nunn commission, and I actually had the privilege of meeting some members of the McEvoy family--the family of the woman who was killed. By the way, they were very concerned about what happened in that case and they want to see changes, but they

Justice committee  Thank you for your kind words. The federal government had a series of consultations across Canada with different groups and individuals, and I participated in a couple of them, but I think it's fair to say that the consultations that I attended are not fully reflected, and ther

Justice committee  I completely agree that Quebec and actually some other provinces—British Columbia, and to a lesser extent Alberta—have programs that really focus on trying to rehabilitate young people, trying to keep them out of the courts. And the role of provincial implementation is very impor

Justice committee  Well, I--

Justice committee  First of all, I think that practice varies to some extent across the country in terms of the kinds of records that are being kept, particularly around extrajudicial measures and, to a lesser extent, about extrajudicial sanctions. They're the two categories. And there are question