Mr. Speaker, I rise today to comment on the limited availability of services that enable victims of crime to prepare a victim impact statement for court consideration. In 1988, Mr. Speaker, all Ministers responsible for criminal justice in Canada, including the Hon. Michael Ballantyne, signed a statement of basic principle of justice for victims of crime. I would like to quote from one of those principles to which we agreed: 'Where the personal interests of the victim are affected, the views or concerns of the victim should be brought to the attention of the court where appropriate and consistent with criminal law in procedure!
Presently, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Justice and the RCMP are making services available to residents of the Northwest Territories in nine selected communities through a pilot project announced on July 3, 1991. Victims of crime in these nine communities are assisted by the RCMP, working jointly with the Department of Justice, to make voluntary victim impact statements. These enable the victim to tell the courts how a crime has affected them emotionally, physically or financially.
Persons who are victimized in other communities do not receive the same level of service. Frequently, the victim must endure the stress of giving evidence in person as their only recourse for advising the court about the impact of the crime. It does not make sense for an individual to have to endure additional personal hardship in order to appraise the courts of the hardship they have already suffered.
This hit home recently, Mr. Speaker, in a criminal matter which was widely reported in the local press. A Yellowknife woman, the alleged victim of a sexual assault, had information about the personal impact caused by the incident before the court. The only way she was able to make the evidence available to the court was to undergo the stressful and humiliating experience of taking the stand.
If she lived in Pond Inlet, Mr. Speaker, she would have had the option of making a victim impact statement. The same would be true if she was living in Norman Wells, Hay River, or in any of the other selected nine communities included in the pilot project. This is simply not fair.
Given that a large number of sentencing submissions are heard by the courts in Yellowknife and the other communities which are now excluded from the program, it makes little sense for residents of these communities to be excluded from the target group receiving these services. I would like to see the Department of Justice wrap up the evaluation phase of this pilot project, and move as quickly as possible toward full implementation of services aimed at the preparation of victim impact statements in Yellowknife and throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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