Remarks to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (LCJC) on Bill C-16 (Protecting Victims Act)

We are meeting on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people continue to experience disproportionate violence. Too often, their families encounter the justice system after irreversible harm has already occurred. Reconciliation requires decisions that make people safer.

The Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime supports the objectives of Bill C-16. Many of its clauses respond to recommendations from our national systemic investigation, Rethinking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence, which drew on input from thousands of people across Canada.

I’ll begin with a modest drafting change that would have a positive impact on victim rights.

1. Protect victim information

Clause 190 of Bill C-16 amends the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to modernize how information about offenders is shared, allowing formal arrangements between criminal justice agencies and the ability to disclose information through a digital interface. This will, in practice, involve the transmission of certain victim information.

Victims have privacy rights independent of offenders under the Charter, the Privacy Act, and the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights that should be explicitly reflected in the proposed provisions.

Adding the words “…or victims” to the proposed CCRA amendments in s. 25.1 (1) on arrangements and s. 25.5 (1) on digital interfaces would respect their privacy rights, enabling more effective administration of victim services across federal agencies.

Proposed amendments:

Arrangement — component of criminal justice system

25.1 (1) The Service may enter into an arrangement with another component of the criminal justice system in order to disclose information about offenders or victims.

Digital interface — required disclosure

25.5 (1) If the Service is authorized to disclose information about offenders or victims under this Act or any other Act of Parliament and the Service intends to make the disclosure by providing access to a digital interface it administers, it must enter into an arrangement with the recipient of the information.

2. Tell victims when bail decisions are made

In my last appearance before this Committee, I was encouraged by senators’ interest in ensuring victims are informed when bail and release decisions are made.

A bill that addresses femicide should not leave victims out of the protection decisions made at bail and release. A victim cannot use a non-communication order or a geographic condition on a release order they never learn about.

I urge the Committee to consider a targeted, safety-focused amendment that respects victims’ s. 7 Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person, and s. 10 of the CVBR, which gives every victim the right to have reasonable and necessary measures taken to protect them from intimidation and retaliation.

We have identified several information gaps in the current regime, and in our written submission to committee we propose two clauses:

Proposed amendments:

Notification to victim

526.1 (a) If a release order, detention order, or order containing a condition or direction that the accused abstain from communicating with any victim is made, varied or reviewed, under this Part, the prosecutor shall, as soon as feasible, take reasonable steps to inform any victim of the offence of the terms of the order.

(b) If an order is made under this Part, the court, justice, or judge shall, on request by a victim of the offence, cause a copy of the order to be given to the victim.

(c) Upon making an order under this Part, the court, judge, or justice must ask the prosecutor whether victims of the offence have been informed of their right to request a copy of the order.

3. Strengthen enforcement of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights

In our submission, we also highlight changes relevant to the CVBR.

• There should be a statutory 5-year review
• We need a formal process to consider victim rights when drafting legislation. We propose short CVBR compliance statements for criminal justice legislation, prepared in parallel with Charter statements, which are already required under the Department of Justice Act

And critically, when a victim comes to our Office alleging that a federal agency violated their rights, we must have access to the necessary information to assess their complaint. Without legislated authority, our requests for relevant information are occasionally denied, limiting the effectiveness of the complaint mechanism Parliament intended to create.

We also need to fix the complaints pathway in the CVBR so victims may contact the Ombudsperson directly where appropriate, including where they feel unsafe or intimidated.

We have proposed two simple clauses in our submission:

Proposed amendments:

Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime

25 (4) (a) Despite any other provision of this Act, a victim may file a complaint about a federal entity alleging a violation of their rights under this Act directly with the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime without exhausting recourse under other complaints mechanisms. The Ombudsperson may receive, review and address such complaints in accordance with their mandate, whether or not the victim has first submitted the complaint to the federal department or agency alleged to have caused the violation.

(b) In reviewing a complaint, the Ombudsperson may require any federal entity to produce any information in their possession, power or control that in the opinion of the Ombudsperson relates to the matter being reviewed.

The Protecting Victims Act should be measured by a practical question: will it make victims safer, better informed and more respected when the system makes decisions that affect them?