Justice committee  I see your point, honourable member. I think that in each individual case, a trial judge, as is their wont, will focus the jury on the specific factors of that particular case. So if you're dealing with a case of two men fighting, you wouldn't need to get into gender or potential issues relating to a previous domestic relationship.

Justice committee  I will answer the honourable member. You raise an interesting concern, the question being at what point do charter interests become involved, and the courts have wrestled with this. I believe this committee is in possession of an academic paper written by Mr. Russomanno as well as Professor MacDonnell, who I understand will be testifying later on to deal specifically with this issue.

Justice committee  Right, but the concept of the more you remove it from a very narrow fact scenario, where you have a shopkeeper who's arresting somebody immediately found committing a crime and holding them for police, and let's say the courts are probably going to find that does not create charter obligations, the concern from our perspective is that the changes in the law allowing a broader period of arrest....

Justice committee  Good morning. I'm here on behalf of the Criminal Lawyers' Association. We've been before you before. We're a non-profit organization, founded on November 1, 1971. The association is comprised of approximately 1,000 criminal defence lawyers, many of whom practise in the province of Ontario, but we have representation from across Canada.