Thank you once again for taking the time to share your concerns with me regarding Bill C-10. I have been communicating with many of you for several weeks now and with others just recently. I would like to assure you that I have taken all of your concerns very seriously and I sincerely appreciate all of your feedback.
Bill C-10 has been returned to the Senate Chamber with six amendments which were made by the Government as well as several observations. I am attaching the observations for you to review.
After hearing from over a hundred witnesses over eleven days and for over fifty hours I was looking forward to having this important Bill extensively debated in the Senate. Unfortunately, much to my dismay, the Government has introduced a six hour time limitation which means that this Bill will only be debated for a maximum of six hours.
As you know there are nine different Bills that make up this Omnibus Crime Bill. Therefore there are many important issues that need to be debated.
I will express my concerns about the time limitation in the Senate Chamber and will also share these concerns with you. I will also be speaking at the Third Reading of Bill C-10 tomorrow. Although there are a number of issues that I would like to speak on I am limited to a time frame of fifteen minutes. Unfortunately this means that in my remarks I will only be able to address a few of the many concerns you, as well as several witnesses that appeared before the committee, have expressed.
Although it appears that we may lose this battle please rest assured that I never give up and I look forward to the day when we can make changes. Sadly, many people will suffer in the meantime. This is a tragedy.
I will be tweeting starting on Thursday at 1:30pm eastern time. You can follow my tweets by visiting www.twitter.com/senjaffer. I will try and convey to you what I hear from my colleagues.
Sincerely,
Honourable Mobina S.B. Jaffer, Q.C.
Senator for British Columbia
Observations PDF