SECU Committee Report

The trust witnesses have in the legal system is essential to maintaining the rule of law. All those with information of possible interest to the police who fear for their safety must have a level of protection suited to their needs. Protection must be given to both children and adults who unwittingly witness a crime or who participated in a crime and wish to cooperate with the authorities. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime supports this finding in its in-depth February 2008 report on internationally recognized good practices for the protection of witnesses.([4]) The report states that safety measures must be considered for any person who believes they are in danger because of their cooperation with the authorities. Canada uses various measures to protect vulnerable and threatened witnesses. This chapter gives an overview of the protective measures available in Canada.

1. OVERVIEW OF WITNESS PROTECTION MEASURES IN CANADA

The evidence heard during our review suggests that the vulnerability of witnesses depends on various factors, particularly the age of the witness and the type of crime under investigation. It is generally recognized that witnesses involved in investigations concerning criminal and terrorist organizations are the target of serious intimidation; children are also targeted because they are perceived as being easy to intimidate. This information is clearly useful in preventing intimidation and allowing authorities in contact with these witnesses to adapt available protection to their situation.

To encourage and facilitate the cooperation of vulnerable and threatened witnesses, Parliament has established a series of legal protective measures that may be used in court, including the following options set out in section 486 of the Criminal Code:([5])

• the possibility of authorizing that testimony be given outside the courtroom, either by closed circuit television or from behind a screen;
• the possibility of having one or more members of the public removed from the courtroom for the entire duration or part of the trial;
• the possibility of imposing a publication ban in order to prevent the publication, dissemination or transmission of any information that could reveal the identity of a victim or witness;
• the possibility of appointing counsel to conduct cross-examination when the accused is acting as his or her own counsel; and
• the possibility of allowing victims under 18 to testify in the presence of a support person.

Individuals whose safety is jeopardized because of information or testimony they have agreed to give as part of an investigation or a criminal case may also be afforded by municipal, provincial or federal police temporary protective measures adapted to their needs and the situation. These measures can take a variety of forms: police escort to court, telephone surveillance, short-term financial assistance or temporary housing for witnesses and their family in a safe house. According to the information gathered by the Committee during its review, these temporary protective measures do not necessarily require the witness to sign an agreement with the police and are not always governed by a specific policy.

That being said, some Canadian provinces and municipalities, including British Columbia, Ontario, the Sûreté du Québec and the City of Montreal Police, have implemented official witness protection programs. These programs provide a range of temporary protective measures for vulnerable witnesses in danger before, during and after a trial. The Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario's Practice Memorandum respecting Ontario's Witness Protection Program, submitted to the Committee on 25 May 2007, states that the Ontario program "does not provide long-term financial assistance." The Ontario Witness Protection Program is a "temporary relocation and assistance program," administered by the Attorney General, which "provides time-limited funding to assist in the protection, maintenance and relocation of a witness and/or family members where doing so is in the best interests of the administration of justice."([6]) It is important to note that these official programs were not governed by any legislation at the time of the Committee's review.

Parliament has also established extrajudicial protection measures for witnesses whose safety could be jeopardized because they are cooperating with the authorities. Those protective measures are set out in the Witness Protection Program Act (WPPA). Adopted by Parliament in June 1996, the WPPA creates the legislative basis for the Witness Protection Program administered by the RCMP.

This program, which provides for the long-term relocation of witnesses in serious danger and an identity change,([7]) is, in the opinion of the witnesses who appeared before the Committee, of particular importance in the fight against organized crime and terrorism. This is because criminal organizations have, in the majority of cases, "many ways of gathering information"([8]) on their accusers. Traditional investigative methods are rarely effective in infiltrating these types of organizations because of their secret nature. Law enforcement agencies must, therefore, use informers and/or human sources, who themselves are often members of the criminal organizations under investigation or on trial and who, because of their cooperation with the authorities, are in very serious danger and require long-term protection, sometimes for life.

While the Committee's mandate is confined to the review of the Witness Protection Program administered by the RCMP, it wishes to reiterate that all witness protection measures in Canada, whether at the municipal, provincial, territorial or federal level, are indispensable in the fight against crime and essential to maintaining the rule of law. The Committee finds that, because police officers are often the first to come into contact with vulnerable and threatened witnesses, it would be useful for them to have more information on witness intimidation so as to prevent it and to identify vulnerable and threatened witnesses in need of protection. The Committee also believes that more information should be made available to Canadians about the various initiatives put in place to protect those who cooperate with the authorities.