Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would then suggest that some form of policy should be in place to encourage them to use better discretion. I refer particularly to a case recently in Tuktoyaktuk where one person was charged with aggravated assault for stabbing another person. The person who did the stabbing charged the other fellow with hitting him with a bottle and breaking the bottle over his head. Both cases went to court. One went to judge and jury. I believe the jury found him not guilty. I am sure both of them are wondering what ever happened there. They were both found not guilty. I believe between the two of them, they are sure that something happened. If the RCMP were allowed to use discretion as far as laying charges, maybe there wouldn't have been any charges at all. In the end, these two people shook hands in court. This cost the taxpayer a lot of money to fly those judges and those lawyers back and forth. In the end, nothing came of it. Those people went home happily.

This is a good indication that our system is not really all that effective. I dare say from the point of view of lawyers, it is very effective. It supplies a good living. From the point of view of the taxpayer, it is costing us a lot of money and we have to find a better system whereby the RCMP who are involved would have the ability to make judgements there and have some kind of political back-up that these decisions are going to stick. This would solve a lot of our costs.