Justice committee  Obviously, there's what is there right now. But one of the things we obviously have to remember is that if there is a mandatory minimum punishment, those sentences are not entitled to have conditional sentences. There were amendments to the Criminal Code, effected last November,

Justice committee  From the existing legislation, no, and I'll tell you why. I even thought of what the most serious charge could be. It's probably manslaughter. Manslaughter in one case can be some fellow who has gone to a bar with his wife or girlfriend and some other fellow makes a comment and t

Justice committee  I don't know if it's appropriate, but if he pushes him off the bike once, the judge has the option. If he kicks him repeatedly and then he's violent and perhaps a danger to the community, it's unlikely a judge is going to impose that. It's going to be vociferously opposed by the

Justice committee  I have to tell you that I believed at the time that there were some things for which people were going to jail because their activity was beyond that which would have resulted in, properly, a suspended sentence and probation. However, jail was probably too harsh for some of these

Justice committee  It will obviously have a bigger impact, because one of the criteria for getting legal aid, at least in the province of Ontario, is that you have to face a substantial likelihood of jail. If this increases the likelihood of jail, then there are going to be more people requiring le

Justice committee  Isn't warranted?

Justice committee  Maybe I can answer that. I do a lot of legal aid work. I represent a lot of aboriginals, both through legal aid and by way of their paying me privately. I don't make any differentiation between the two and how they're treated by me. The difficulty seems to be that everyone who

Justice committee  I might be out of order, but I don't believe that was his question. I believe his question was, of all conditional sentences, how many are breached? It wasn't what happens after the breach, but how many are breached.

Justice committee  The difference in process in terms of what's going to happen as a result of the sentence?

Justice committee  No, and I'll tell you why. It's because of the broadness of so many offences under the Criminal Code. As I said earlier, a robbery is not a robbery. If the offences were tighter, that would be one thing, but if you don't want it to apply to certain situations within a robbery, th

Justice committee  Are you asking the probation officers or us?

Justice committee  I could answer that, because I do a lot of trial work. They're very important. A negative pre-sentence report usually results in a jail sentence; it doesn't result in a probationary sentence. It really is a very important tool for the judge to consider in passing sentence.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too am a member of the executive of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers. I've been practising as a criminal defence lawyer in London, Ontario, and southwestern Ontario for the past 25 years. I note that it would appear that this committe