Home Newsroom 2004 Speeches (archive) McLellan: 2004-08-19

Canadian Association of Police Boards annual conference "Protecting Our Children"

Speaking notes for
The Honourable Anne McLellan

Vancouver, British Columbia
August 19, 2004

Introduction

Thank you very much. Mr. [David] Ruptash, who is from my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. What a very kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate having the opportunity to speak to a group of people who play such a fundamental role in community policing across Canada.

It is always a great pleasure for me to be here and speak before the Canadian Association of Police Boards. And, as Dave has just mentioned, I used to come regularly. I don't think I missed a meeting when I was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

It's wonderful to see so many people with whom I have worked before and to meet new people who have taken up the challenging task of serving on your communities' police boards and police commissions.

Let me say that in my new role as Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, I look forward to working with you. I can assure you I understand the importance of everything you do every day in terms of working with our frontline police, working with our chiefs, working with our local, provincial and federal governments.

I want to talk a little bit more about the importance of partnership among all of us in just a few minutes. But before I do that, I do want to acknowledge that, Dave, I understand this is your last Board of Directors' meeting with this Association. I think you will all agree, in spite of his golfing prowess, that Dave has served with distinction as a member of the Board of Directors of this Association. I would ask you all to give Dave Ruptash a big round of applause. Of course it doesn't hurt that he comes from my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta.

Policing Priorities

Now, as I've already mentioned, I do want to assure everyone here today, as I did your board members some months ago when a number of you came to see me in Ottawa, I want to assure you all that policing continues to be a priority for me, for my department and for our government.

I raise this because with the creation of the new Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on December 12th, I know – because I've talked to some in the policing community at least and I think probably some on the board here – there was a concern that what one might call the traditional aspects of law enforcement and policing and corrections might get lost in this brand new, very large department called Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, especially in light of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

In fact there are many similarities between this new department and the department that my colleague Tom Ridge heads up in the United States, his Department of Homeland Security. However, while it is true that one of my absolute key concerns is national security – dealing with the threat of terrorism, working not only with my colleagues at all levels of government in this country, but also with people like Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft in the United States, and colleagues in other countries on the national security of all Canadians – we continue to be a department very much focused on policing, on the importance of public safety in our local communities, on corrections policy, on crime prevention, on how we work hard to keep people away from crime and we keep our communities safe.

Patricia Hassard is here today from my department and she is going to be speaking to you tomorrow more about the department and the number of different foci that we have in this new department. But I just want you to hear directly from me that policing and law enforcement continue to be a major part and always will be a major part of what we do.

I think, in fact, that with the creation of the department and the synergies it creates by bringing together CSIS, the RCMP, Corrections, a brand new Canadian Border Services Agency – where we bring Customs officials, Canadian Food Inspection agents and immigration enforcement officers together all in one place – I think that we have the opportunity to develop strategic partnerships at all levels and develop some synergies that will enhance our ability to do things, including frontline policing, in a way that is better for everyone. Certainly, we hope to be able to integrate information sharing, which is the lifeblood of all policing, the lifeblood of our attempts to deal with the threat of terrorism.

I think some of the things that you see happening in this new department will go a long way to helping the local police in all our communities do their jobs and help them work with our national police force and with other agencies committed to keeping all Canadians safe regardless of the source of the threat.

Now I do again want to underscore that we view the CAPB as an important partner. I'm going to say quite a bit this afternoon about the importance of partnership because I believe it is the way that we maximize our talents and our limited resources – you probably have things to say to me about the resource equation that you face every day – but it's only through the creation of strategic partnerships and I very much see that as one of the key foci of this new department which I head.

Just before I talk about some of the issues that are clearly on your agenda – because I've had the opportunity to look at your program for this meeting – I do want to say a few words about national security, which is an obvious area of key importance in my portfolio. I was pleased to release our country's first-ever integrated National Security Policy in April.

This policy does anticipate a pivotal role for Canada's police community. While the federal government has overall responsibility for national security issues, whether the threat be a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, we recognize that security starts much closer to home. Police and first responders are on the front lines when it comes to emergency prevention and response and we are committed to working with them.

A good example of this type of partnership is right here in Vancouver with the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team or INSET. There are four such teams across the country now and two more will be established before 2006. These teams respond to information and bring together CSIS, the RCMP, local police and other authorities to provide valuable support to police on the front lines dealing with threats to national security.

I think, Ed, somebody reported to me that perhaps in your comments earlier today you talked about the importance of support at all levels for frontline responders and resources, be it in terms of equipment or training in relation to things like the challenges around CBRN. My department has been very much involved since September 11, 2001, in dedicating new resources and working with local frontline responders, many of them in your communities. We've trained over 500 frontline responders. We have a long way to go, but we have come a long way since September 11th.

What we're doing in a national training program – training those frontline responders to respond to whatever kind of emergency or disaster – is exactly what our colleagues in the United States are doing as well, reaching down, working with the local level to make sure, regardless of the source of the emergency, that frontline responders have the equipment and the training to know how to respond. Obviously frontline responders, a key, key element of any frontline response, often there first along with fire, are our police forces in this country.

So I can assure you, Ed, and other members of the Association that we take very seriously as a national priority our contribution to work with frontline responders to ensure that working together they have the training and resources they need to keep people safe in our local communities.

Protecting Our Children

I realize the theme of your conference this year is "Protecting Our Children," which is also I think an overarching, dare I say, transcendent priority and obligation on the part of government regardless of what level. And, again, we know that we only protect our children if we work across jurisdictions and support local law enforcement together.

The federal government has taken important steps towards strengthening the protection of children and each of these steps emphasizes pooling efforts and working together.

For example, in January 2003, at the request of the Government of Canada, the RCMP and the OPP created a National Steering Committee to provide strategic direction and advice on law enforcement initiatives aimed at the growing problem of internet-based sexual exploitation of children. The steering committee includes membership from major police services across Canada as well as officials from my department and the Department of Justice.

In April 2003, we established a National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre within the RCMP's National Police Services. I know that you heard from Assistant Commissioner Mike Buisson, who is Chief of the RCMP's National Police Services this morning, so I'm not going to say anything more about the work that this centre does, other than to say I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to go over to the centre and meet the dedicated men and women, members of the RCMP, who are working in that coordination centre and clearly they're a growing centre. They are a centre of coordination and facilitation and they value very highly and take very seriously their role working with local law enforcement agencies across this country, as we all learn more about the horrors of child sexual exploitation.

I also know that you heard firsthand this morning, very compellingly, from Cherry Kingsley about her experiences. I think we understand that when we hear someone like Cherry talk about her experiences why it is so important for us to work together to ensure that we understand what is happening in this area. We need to understand not only the local and national, but also global dimensions of this challenge. We need to understand the involvement, the growing involvement of organized crime in child sexual exploitation. And we need to understand how important it is to work together to deal with all aspects of child sexual exploitation. So we are pleased that we have the Coordination Centre in place.

However, we all know more needs to be done. That is why in the February Speech from the Throne our government announced the launch of a broader National Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. And in the 2004 Budget we earmarked $42 million over the next five years. That money is going in large part to support the work of the RCMP's National Coordination Centre.

We're also building on the innovative and successful cybertip.ca. Those of you from Manitoba are probably aware of this pilot project. It was initiated by Child Find Manitoba and with federal funding, cybertip.ca will expand to become a national tool for Canadians to provide online reports of incidents of child sexual exploitation.

Of course, we are also working with the provinces and territories toward implementing the National Sex Offender Registry. I am pleased to say that the Sex Offender Information Registration Act received Royal Assent in April, and that we will bring this legislation into force this fall. To be the success we all want it to be, it requires the cooperation of the provinces, the territories, the federal government as well as our police forces both local and national.

I believe that this new legislation as well as recently introduced legislation concerning child pornography and exploitation, that with these measures together – and we will reintroduce that child pornography legislation this fall – I think we are building one of the toughest frameworks in the world to crack down on those who would threaten our children.

Whether it's Internet luring, whether it's the sex tourism trade, whether it's child pornography, whether it's sexual assault. I think that we understand the growing – and that is the very tragic part of this – the growing challenge, the growing nature of this particular form of crime. It becomes all the harder to deal with because of the involvement of organized crime and because of the use of technology to exploit children and, again, this speaks to the fact that we all need to work more closely together.

Organized Crime

Let me just say a few words about the presence of organized crime in Canada. Many of you, probably all of you, deal with the challenge of organized crime in partnership with your local police forces. We all know that many of our social problems – prostitution, drug trafficking, gun smuggling, smuggled cigarettes, telemarketing scams and other illegally financed activities – are all linked to organized crime.

The Criminal Code amendments that I introduced when I was Minister of Justice in 2001 have strengthened our ability to bring criminals to justice. But significant challenges remain. Organized crime is a profitable business. Dare I say it's probably just about the most profitable business anyone could go into. It invests a lot of its ill-gained profits in developing new ways to avoid detection.

Developing effective, collaborative solutions to combat organized crime is therefore a matter of great importance to governments at all levels, as well as to the law enforcement community. And I believe that our collaborative actions to tackle the issue of illegal marijuana grow operations provide a good example of how we can and we must work together to combat organized crime.

I've talked to your Board of Directors about this. Let me assure you that I see illegal grow ops as one of the single biggest problems we face in our local communities. It saps up all sorts of local police resources and time. It's big, big business and there's absolutely no question that we need to reinforce the great work that our police forces at all levels are doing.

I don't know if any of you have seen the most recent edition of Time Magazine this week, but it doesn't make me feel very good as a Canadian or the Minister responsible for Public Safety in this country to see an exposé in that magazine about illegal grow ops and B.C. bud, and how our friends and neighbours in the United States are expressing, quite rightly, grave concern around the amount of this stuff that's being exported out of this country into their country to become a problem for them on the streets of America.

Quite clearly we need to take this – and I know we all do, everyone in this room, I'm preaching to the converted. We all know how serious this is. Our police forces know how serious this is. But, in fact, again, what we have to do is figure out whether we're working as closely together, whether we're collecting the intelligence and then using that intelligence to strike at the heart of this part of organized crime.

I am pleased that we have a National Coordinating Committee that was put in place by federal, provincial, and territorial governments under the broader umbrella of our organized crime initiative to look specifically at illegal grow ops and I believe, Ed, that that was one of the resolutions coming from this organization among others. Also, the vast majority of the new money under our Renewed Drug Strategy was allocated to the RCMP. Some $22 million of that new money is being used to establish and operate marijuana grow operations enforcement teams across the country. There's one here in British Columbia. There's one in Quebec. There's one in Alberta, and we expect additional teams to be established in Ontario and Atlantic Canada in the coming months.

I want to also give you an update on the cannabis legislation because my guess is many of you in this room have strong views on it. As you know, what we wanted to do was provide alternative penalties for simple possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use and also double the maximum penalties that could be imposed by the courts in relation to illegal grow operations.

That legislation will be reintroduced, I gather, this fall. It's not my jurisdiction; it's the Minister of Justice. I do believe, however, that the government has indicated through the Minister of Justice that he will seek to reintroduce this legislation. I don't know whether it will come back in exactly the same form, but what I want to do is look at the legislation to make sure that we're doing everything we can in there to combat illegal grow ops, that we can combat trafficking and that we have the laws and the resources to deal with that challenge.

So, as I say, I think the legislation will come back in some form this fall and if you have views and when the Standing Committee takes another look at it, I would encourage your Association to make sure that your voices are heard. You come from the communities where you're dealing with drug use and abuse of whatever kind, and you, as members of police boards and commissions, deal with the challenge of illegal grow ops.

Lawful Access

Let me just close briefly here. I want to say just a few words about another issue I know, Ed, that is top-of-mind for all of you in this room and this is the whole question of lawful access. It is one that the Chiefs, I think, have dealt with already this week in their meetings.

Terrorists, organized criminals, drug traffickers, child pornographers and smugglers – these are just some of the harmful elements of our society who take advantage of new and evolving technologies to commit their crimes. At your last annual meeting you asked the federal government to update the legal framework to ensure public safety in the face of these new technologies. This is something my department is working on actively.

Lawful access laws were originally designed, as you all know, for rotary telephones, not for cell phones and not for the Internet. I understand the importance for law enforcement officials to have the tools they need to undertake their investigative work. And we will continue to work diligently with all our partners on lawful access legislation.

Look, quite clearly, we've got to do more here. This issue's been around since when? The late 1970s? And in 1996 or 1997, the Chiefs and others and your board I think passed your first resolution signaling the fact that lawful access was going to be a problem for law enforcement. In fact we've had lots of studies in the Department of Industry, the Department of Justice, this new department, previously the Solicitor General's Department. We've looked at this.

I wish I could tell you here today that we've resolved all the problems. We haven't. Industry, those who are internet providers, telephone companies and others have strong views, as you are all aware, in terms of what their obligations are as responsible corporate citizens and private sector participants in keeping all Canadians safe. I do believe they have a role to play and that is a view that I will be sharing with them at the first opportunity.

But we have a very practical problem in that technology is simply superceding the timely ability of our law enforcement agencies – police, CSIS and others – to do what needs to be done to intercept communications of those who would do harm to Canadians, wherever they live. And, therefore, we must take action on lawful access.

We are falling behind other countries. I think virtually every other country that we would like to compare ourselves to have already moved in this area, recognizing that lawful – and you know for people, especially in the media, who perhaps have an angle on this, what we're talking about here is lawful interception, lawful access, where one goes to a judge and one gets the authorization for the intercept.

I'm not pretending that there are not privacy issues; of course there are. But I think at the end of the day we have to come to grips with the fact that the bad guys are one step ahead of us in this area in terms of technology, which changes quickly, and unless we have the complete cooperation of the private sector, those who develop and install and use this technology, we are always going to be one step behind the bad guys. Therefore, lawful access for me is one of the key priority areas that I will be turning my attention to this fall.

Certainly I could do with your help, you know, to make sure that people, whether it's the Standing Committee on Justice in the House of Commons, the Senate or elsewhere, that people understand what we're talking about. Yes, you have to strike the right balance between public safety and personal privacy. But at the end of the day if people truly understand the issue, they will understand that we are trying to strike the right balance and that what we're doing is important not only here, but also globally, making sure our law enforcement agencies have what they need to protect Canadians, and for us then in turn, to help protect our allies wherever they may live.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to be here once again. I do believe that governments across our country at all levels have a strong record of working together on issues of safety and security. This is one of the areas where I've always found my provincial and territorial colleagues, and municipal and local government colleagues very willing to work together to identify the shared problems and find the solutions and the resources to keep Canadians safe.

Whether we are talking about organized crime, the sexual exploitation of children, combating illegal drug use, responding to natural disasters or preventing terrorist attacks, we need to take our coordination and cooperation to the next level. I know that you as an Association, each of you in your local communities are committed to that goal. I certainly look forward to working with you, as does my department, in the months and years ahead to make sure that our shared ambition – which is of course the highest level of safety and security and emergency preparedness for our communities and for our families, our friends and our neighbours. That is our shared goal and we need to work closely together to ensure that we're able to deliver on it.

So, again, thank you all very much. Enjoy the rest of the conference. I've looked at your program. You have some very important and interesting subjects. Patricia is going to be here for the rest of the conference and I look forward to her report on your deliberations and on how we are able to work more closely together in the future. Thank you again. Enjoy the rest of the conference.