Environment committee  Yes, in Rube it was up to three years of imprisonment; for Ellis-Don, it was 12 months; and for Martin, it was five years.

Environment committee  Yes, that's correct.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, there is never certainty in law, unfortunately. So it's a range of arguments, reasonable arguments on both sides of any issue, which is why ultimately we need judges to decide them. But in approaching the issues, we tend to look at, obviously, the leading authorities a

Environment committee  That's correct. It's fair to say, and the courts have clearly held this, that when you impose an obligation on the defence, the requirement to do something assertive to avoid conviction—and that's what strict liability does; it imposes on the accused the obligation to prove on

Environment committee  One of the key pieces of legal advice that they rely on, I understand, is the advice provided to one of the industry groups previously--on Bill C-15 in 2005--by Alan Gold, the eminent defence counsel in Canada. Alan Gold acknowledges in his opinion that the courts across this cou

Environment committee  I apologize, but I am actually not competent to speak to that. I advise exclusively on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it would be other Department of Justice officials who would have to explain that issue to you.

Environment committee  I can make a quick summation of the relevant legal issues in about five minutes, if that's what the committee wants.

Environment committee  I think my answer, Mr. Chair, will hopefully allay some of the concerns that committee members may have. I think there has been incomplete information provided to the committee so far on the nature of the legal questions raised by a strict reliability approach to regulatory offen

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may. Section 8 of the charter is where we find generally the protection of privacy for Canadians. It precludes government from intruding into a reasonable expectation of privacy, except when it has a compelling reason to do so. To the extent that date of birth would be char

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm Ray MacCallum from the Department of Justice.