Hon. David Lametti, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: Thank you, senator. With all respect, in Canada, the way we have divided up our system — and I congratulate the previous Conservative government for having done this, as I thought Minister Nicholson did a great job with it — is that the investigative function is undertaken by the place of jurisdiction, whether it be the RCMP or another police force. So those investigations would be undertaken independently by the police force of jurisdiction.

The prosecutorial function is then independently done by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada if it’s covered by the federal prosecution or — in most cases of criminal offences — by provincial prosecution services. Again, those are independent — and I think they should be independent — of the office of the Attorney General.

So I’m not in a position to comment on any of those questions, nor should I be, given the way our system has evolved. I quite frankly think the system as it currently stands is working reasonably well.

Hon. David Lametti, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: You are fortunate to be able to ask a second question. That is the responsibility of my colleague, Mr. Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety. I know that he is working with his Quebec counterpart, Minister Guilbault. We have invested heavily on that file and we are working very closely with Quebec, whether on border issues, strengthening the capacity of police forces with anti-gang programs or other matters.

So there is both cooperation and investment in this file, with most of the investment coming from the federal and Quebec governments. Often we do not take credit in Quebec’s public space for the federal government’s investments, but we are making those investments and we do clearly see the problem. As I was telling Senator Housakos, I am from Montreal. I am a Montrealer, and I am aware of the challenge. We will continue to work with Quebec to protect our citizens.

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