Thank you, minister, for joining us in this place. Bill C-46 regarding drug-impaired driving imposes mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for some offences. An exception to these mandatory minimums is created in proposed section 320.23, which gives judges discretion to substitute a mandatory minimum punishment for another punishment in cases of individuals who have been sentenced to complete and have completed treatment programs.

This provision appears to acknowledge the importance and effectiveness of responding to issues of drug impairment through the health care system rather than the criminal justice system.

Those most marginalized in our society, particularly indigenous peoples who are currently overrepresented in prisons in Canada, lack resources and face other barriers related to accessing justice that directly affect their ability to make these sorts of cases in court. What steps have been taken to ensure that these individuals will have not only knowledge of and then access to treatment orders, but also that other exceptions to the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions will be provided?

Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: Thank you to the honourable senator for her question. In the context of Bill C-46, but generally speaking in the context of individuals who are marginalized or who find themselves in the criminal justice system by virtue of the fact that they have an addiction or a mental illness or are indigenous — indigenous peoples are sadly overrepresented in the criminal justice system — I’m pleased with the proposals that we have in Bill C-46 to ensure that if an individual does get treatment, the mandatory minimum penalty won’t apply. Likewise, there’s an opportunity in this legislation to have an interlock device on a car in order for an individual to proceed that way.

In terms of measures and what we have done as a department to advise marginalized individuals about their rights and provide support for access to justice, we have a number of programs in the Department of Justice. One is the Native court workers and counselling program, which supports Native court workers to assist indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system to navigate their way through, to assist them in recognizing their rights and providing access to justice.

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We also have an Indigenous Justice Program that provides workers in indigenous communities to support individuals that are navigating their way through the justice system, but also to provide what I firmly believe is the significant opportunity that we have to inject more justice into the justice system, through Indigenous Justice Program supports, or otherwise working with the provinces and territories, to ensure we create more off-ramps for individuals who find themselves in the criminal justice system for reasons other than being inherently criminal. Off-ramps such as restorative justice measures or alternatives such as drug treatment courts, of which we have six in the country right now, supporting more drug treatment courts, more mental health courts and more community-based courts.

There’s a tremendous opportunity for us to pursue measures that ensure that the first time individual offenders find themselves in the criminal justice is the last time they find themselves there. There’s much that we can do. With the substantive collaborative relationship I have with my colleagues in the provinces and territories, I know we’re going to ensure we do everything we can to put programs in place that provide the wraparound services that are necessary for individuals to exit from the justice system.