Justice committee  Ah, I wish I had an exact answer to that question. I think in the work we're doing, we're looking for new and significant information that, if it had been used at trial, could have changed the outcome of the actual trial. We start with the applicant: What do you think? Could there be something there?

Justice committee  I think Lindsey talked about two years for her commission, or a couple of years. I think the CCRC in England has a similar timeline of I think 24 months. Once a case has been accepted to move forward, it would not be unreasonable, in my view.

Justice committee  Oh, my God....

Justice committee  That's a hard question to answer.

Justice committee  Yeah, right. That's a doctoral dissertation. You have to sort of draw the line somewhere, I guess. It's funny, because there's a presumption of innocence at trial and in the adversarial system, but then once you've been convicted, that's gone. I think then it begins almost sort of an inquisitorial type of practice.

Justice committee  Yes, 100%. It's such a great opportunity at this moment to be able to say, okay, let's collect all of this data and find out where our courts are getting it wrong, where our police are getting it wrong and where lawyers are getting it wrong, and to do research, make policy recommendations and share information with organizations.

Justice committee  There are statements to that effect, but I don't think there is legislative pressure behind it. I've been listening to all of these hearings, and I know that Justice LaForme was very disappointed in terms of wanting to have mandated positions for an Indigenous person and a Black person on the commission.

Justice committee  A process that wouldn't necessarily.... I don't think that somebody sitting in a jail cell is going to know what to do in terms of their application. They won't. I know that the CCRG, in my dealings with it over the years, has told me its most fulsome applications come from innocence projects and people who have representation, which is very rare.

Justice committee  I certainly saw that in LaForme and Westmoreland-Traoré's recommendations. It was right in there. I don't know if it's so explicit in the bill, though. I didn't really see that.

Justice committee  Poverty is a big one, for sure. Others are racism, lack of opportunity, lack of education, and not really understanding how the criminal justice system works. I don't think people really understand the notion of what their rights are—the right to silence, the right to counsel, all of those things that we understand as being something every Canadian is entitled to.

Justice committee  They can look at dangerous offender designations and long-term offender sentencing designations. Perhaps, as you're saying, it's an overabundance of caution. I suspect that, once the commission is up and running, the floodgates will open. There will be a lot of people asking for review.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  That's right.

Justice committee  I actually do, and that's one thing I think the commission should consider—the sentence—because at times, a sentence can be a miscarriage of justice as well. We've had people come to us with cases of, let's say, second degree when, in their opinion, it should have been manslaughter.

Justice committee  In an ideal world, it would be a couple of years. The case that we have in front of the CCRG right now, we investigated for five years. They've had it now for four years. This man had a second-degree murder sentence and was released at 13 years. He's going in front of the parole board right now.