Department of Justice

Letter from the Honourable Allan Rock to the provincial Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General

Re: Section 745.6 of the Criminal Code

With the coming into force of Bill C-45, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (judicial review of parole ineligibility) and another Act (now S.C. 1996, c. 34) on January 9, 1997, I have fulfilled my commitment to make amendments to section 745.6 to help ensure that only deserving cases get the benefit of this provision.

Notwithstanding these amendments, I know that there is still a significant level of public concern about section 745.6.

During the process of preparing and passing the amendments, I learned that one of the reasons for this concern is the fact that many people were unaware of the existence of this provision. For example, the families of murder victims often find out about section 745.6 through the media, many years after the trial and conviction of the offender. This late discovery leads to a sense of surprise and betrayal. This sense of surprise and betrayal was evident in the testimony of many of the victims' advocates who appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs and the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, when these Committees considered Bill C-45.

In response to this concern, when my officials appeared before the Standing Senate Committee, a commitment was made on my behalf to do what we can to see that victims' families are informed about the existence of section 745.6, not many years after the conviction, but at the time of sentencing in murder cases. The Standing Senate Committee was sufficiently concerned about this issue to take the unusual step of including the following proposal in it's Report to the Senate on Bill C-45:

It is the proposal of your Committee that the Minister of Justice use whatever measures at his/her disposal to inform the public about section 745.6, including discussions with provincial Attorneys General, so that together they may find the means by which victims' families could have full knowledge of this section.

[From the Seventeenth Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, December 5, 1996.]

In view of this legitimate concern, and in fulfilment of the commitment made to the Standing Senate Committee, I am writing to ask that you consider issuing a policy or standing instruction to your Crown Attorneys to the effect that they are to inform victims' families of the existence and effect of section 745.6 at the time of sentencing in all murder cases.

I believe that this simple act of advising victims' families of the full implications of the sentence being imposed in murder cases, will alleviate the sense of surprise and betrayal described above, and will support the belief that people are being told the whole truth about the sentencing system for murderers.

I ask that you give this important matter your full consideration.

Yours very truly,

Allan Rock

c.c.: The Honourable Sharon Carstairs