The committee was continuing clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-238, a private member's bill concerning restitution orders, with Jocelyn Sigouin, counsel in the Criminal Law Policy Section of the Department of Justice, appearing as the sole witness. The meeting was dominated by amendments and subamendments moved by members rather than by witness testimony, and the committee also dealt with the election of a vice-chair.
Sigouin's only substantive contribution came in response to a question from Roman Baber about whether the proposed Liberal amendment preserved priority for victims over community organizations. She pointed to proposed subsection 738(1.1), which provides that amounts ordered under paragraphs (1)(a) to (e) have priority over amounts ordered under paragraph (1)(f). Baber thanked her and accepted the explanation.
Viviane Lapointe moved an amendment (LIB-1) that would rewrite the bill to enumerate offences rather than organizations, prompting Andrew Lawton to argue it was out of order for changing the scope of the bill. Lawton then moved a subamendment narrowing recipients to organizations providing frontline services to victims, and with unanimous consent revised it to read "an organization that provides frontline services to victims of the offence." Baber supported the subamendment as restoring the bill's original intent, then made a lengthy submission arguing that supervised consumption sites and similar institutions should not receive restitution, citing the death of Karolina Huebner-Makurat in Leslieville and a proposed Toronto shelter, and warning that LIB-1 would render all Conservative amendments moot. He asked that such institutions be excluded from the bill's beneficiaries.
Jenny Kwan moved an amendment requiring the minister to table an annual report to Parliament, in consultation with provincial and territorial governments, on gaps in victim services broken down by province and considering vulnerable populations including youth, Indigenous people, women and racialized people. She cited the 2011 Federal Victims Strategy Evaluation, calls for justice 5.6, 16.29 and 17.27 of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and submissions from the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime. Marilyn Gladu argued the amendment was outside the bill's scope, and Rhéal Éloi Fortin objected that it would have the federal minister report on matters of provincial jurisdiction, calling it disrespectful to provincial jurisdiction; Kwan responded that she had understood Liberals had committed to support it, drawing a point of order from James Maloney about importing outside conversations.
The committee disposed of the various amendments and subamendments by agreement, several on division, and elected a vice-chair, with Amarjeet Gill nominating Arpan Khanna.
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