Justice committee  With “relevant”, it opens up the question of who determines what's relevant and what's not relevant.

Justice committee  I think in a lot of cases we would interview what we call collateral contacts: family members, people important in the person's life, and perhaps employers and service providers. For example, the client may say, I'm not diagnosed but I may have depression. So we can write that report, and say that the client reports feelings of depression, and suggest to the judge that this is an avenue we could explore after sentencing.

Justice committee  I think if it's determined the way you mentioned it would be a big problem, a very significant problem, because based on the shortage.... In my community, for the youth I was working with, the psychiatrist had a roster of 300 patients, and they had to wait to get on that list. There are limitations on what's available for people who can make the diagnosis, and the reports are very expensive, $1,500 to $2,500 each.

Justice committee  I'd like to expand on that a little. I think there have to be mechanisms in place for more information sharing. For example, a lot of our clients have been picked up on the weekends and admitted into the psychiatric ward for observation. Often they're released the same day or the next day, and we're not always made aware of that.

Justice committee  If I could just add to that, we can tell the courts what's available, but we can't do anything about timelines. We can't do anything about the client's willingness to participate. We can certainly say, “Here is the service in the community”, but again, the wait-list could be several months.

Justice committee  The association appreciates the opportunity to share knowledge and experience with the committee and speak on behalf of probation and parole officers in Ontario. POAO would like to thank Mr. Jowhari for bringing the bill forward and to paraphrase Mr. Jowhari, while the bill is a small change to legislation, it may have considerable impact on our work and on some portions of the justice system.

Justice committee  I can start by thanking the committee for inviting the Probation Officers Association to speak on Bill C-375. The Probation Officers Association was established in 1952. We're a voluntary, non-profit organization, representing professional interests of the probation officers and probation and parole officers across the province of Ontario.