Speeches

Speaking Notes for Harvey Cenaiko, Chairperson, National Parole Board, for the CSC Executive Development Symposium, November 25, 2009, Cornwall, ON

(Check Against Delivery)

Welcome

Good afternoon everyone.

I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you.

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s sessions, and that you found the discussions and exchanges with the representatives from the various organizations to be as informative and beneficial as I did.

I would like to thank [Commissioner] Don Head, [Assistant Commissioner] Lori MacDonald, and the conference organizers for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon, and for all of their hard work in putting together such a tremendous agenda for this event.

This symposium represents an excellent and unique opportunity, in that it brings together senior level government officials, criminal justice partners, and stakeholders from across the country to explore issues facing the corrections and conditional release system.

It provides us with a chance to inform each other about our work, to exchange knowledge and ideas, and to promote innovation and collaboration – all in pursuit of a shared goal, working to increase public safety and the safe reintegration of offenders into society as contributing and law abiding citizens.

As the newly appointed Chairperson of the National Parole Board, this event also provides me with a very timely opportunity to talk to you about some of the main issues and challenges facing the Board, and the key priorities I've identified to help tackle them over the course of the next few years.

It also provides me with a chance to underline the critically important role that many of you play in helping the Parole Board of Canada (PBC)to carry out its work and deliver its mandate.

But before I get started, for the benefit of the majority of you who do not yet know me, perhaps I can take a moment to tell you a little about myself and my background.

Before my appointment as Chairperson of the Parole Board of Canada (PBC)this past summer, I was Vice-Chairperson in the Board's Prairie region. From 2004-2006, I was Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security for the province of Alberta. Prior to that, I enjoyed a 25-year career with the Calgary Police Service, retiring at the level of inspector.

So as you can see, although I may be fairly new to the Board, I have spent the better part of three decades working at various levels within the criminal justice system.

Based on my varied experience in the field of justice, one thing that I can say for certain though, is that although our specific mandates may vary, one common thread that connects all the various players within the criminal justice system is the tremendous dedication and shared commitment to public safety of those working in it.

So my experience, I think, places me in a very good position to lead the Board, and I am very excited to be taking on this new challenge.

Current Challenges

Speaking of challenges, the Board continues to operate within a very complex and challenging environment.

It is an environment that demands both the careful assessment of criminal justice issues and community concerns, and also constant innovation and improvement to meet heavy and often unpredictable workload pressures.

It is also an environment that involves critical issues of public safety, that requires decisions to be made under strict legislated timelines, and that operates under intense media and public scrutiny.

One particular challenge that the Board faces is the growing complexity in the area of conditional release decision-making.

As you know, this is perhaps most evident in the trend towards an increasingly more difficult federal inmate population characterized by longer criminal histories, greater prevalence of violence, more gang affiliations, more serious substance abuse problems, and greater mental and physical health problems.

It is also evident in the trend towards shorter sentences. This leads to less time for offenders to benefit from programs and treatment, which in turn presents challenges for PBC decision-makers in assessing factors related to the safe reintegration of the offender into the community.

Finally, it is reflected in the increasing diversity of the offender population, demonstrated in part by the continued over-representation of Aboriginal people and the growing number of offenders from ethno-racial communities, and the growing problem of cultural and language barriers.

As a result, the Board requires increasingly innovative and effective decision processes to address these groups’ needs.

Another challenge the Board faces is a sharp increase in the demand for pardons, which has required continuing internal adjustments to deal with increased volumes.

Legislated requirements under the CCRA in the areas of openness and accountability, and a growing focus in the area of victims of crime, also continue to present a challenge for the Board.

The CCRA requires that the Board share information with victims, assist individuals to observe PBC hearings or gain access to its registry of decisions, and deliver public information programming and outreach activities within limited resources.

As with conditional release decision-making, the need for quality program delivery here is critical, given its implications for public confidence in the corrections and conditional release system.

Legislative changes being introduced by the current Government also offer opportunities and challenges for conditional release.

Achievements

Despite these challenges, however, the Board has managed to continue to deliver its mandate.

Last year, the Board completed 17,565 conditional release reviews.

93% of parole releases did not commit a new offence and 99% did not commit a new violent offence.

On the pardons side, the Board processed more than 40,000 pardons applications, and was able to significantly improve its processing time to 3.5 months.

These results speak to the great dedication and commitment of our Board members and public service employees.

Priority Areas

In an effort to position the Board to respond to its current challenges and build on its achievements, I undertook an exercise in the months immediately following my appointment as Chairperson to engage and consult with members of my staff at every level and in every region, and to share with them my own thoughts on the Board's direction over the next five years.

As a result of this consultation, a number of common themes emerged.

I won't get into each of the priority areas or all of the activities we intend to pursue, but a few of them will resonate with you I'm sure, and in some cases involve a collaborative approach between our organizations.

National Benchmarks

One of the priorities we've identified involves developing national benchmarks.

Now, finding the right balance between establishing the highest quality guidelines for Board members while also protecting their independence is always a challenge for administrative tribunals.

However, I feel it's very important that the Board set clear national standards to ensure the highest possible quality decision-making in its conditional release decisions.

Training

Another priority area we identified was professional development, particularly in the area of Board member training.

The Board is recognized internationally as being the gold-standard in terms of conditional release decision-making and the processes that support our hearings.

To maintain this standard, and build on it, it is critical that Board members and staff remain up-to-date on the most recent evidence-based research in support of the highest quality decision-making possible.

In support of this, we are developing new training modules for Board members and staff and a national training session.

Streamlining Victim Services

Streamlining victim services is another priority area for the Board, and I know it is one that is shared by CSC as well.

The Board has been working to improve the information services it provides to victims, while working closely with stakeholders and partners to ensure an effective and cohesive service delivery.

Our focus is on how we can make it easier for victims to navigate the web of services that are currently available to them at the local, provincial/territorial, and national levels.

Together with CSC, we have already implemented a number of processes to ensure collaboration of our agencies, such as ongoing meetings at the national and regional level, as well as expanding a Department of Justice victims’ advisory committee to include our agencies.

We are also working closely with CSC to improve victim registration to make it less onerous for victims to complete.

Outreach

Our efforts will include engaging more consistently with our partners in the criminal justice field to help them to better understand the conditional release system, and the Board's decision-making process.

The Board recognizes the vital role our partners play in the conditional release process, and it is critical that we reach out and ensure that they, too, are aware of how their work affects the Board's ability to carry out its mandate.

The Board also intends to better promote the Board's role in issuing and granting pardons directly to those seeking them, as this is an area where much misinformation currently exists.

As I mentioned earlier, the increasing diversity of the offender population continues to present a challenge to the Board, particularly in terms of Aboriginal over-representation.

We are therefore looking to engage more effectively with Aboriginal people and communities through outreach and other activities.

Other priorities

The Board has established a number of other priorities in addition to these to build on our existing strengths, and I will be pursuing these over the course of my appointment.

Contribution of Partners to Decision-Making

Now, you’ll recall that at the outset of my presentation I mentioned that this event is an opportunity for me to underline the important role that the Board’s partners play in helping the Board deliver its mandate.

What do I mean by this? Well, in many respects, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC)is the gateway to conditional release, to the community.

The Board has exclusive authority, under the CCRA, to grant, deny, cancel, terminate or revoke day parole and full parole, and to order certain offenders to be detained until the end of their sentence.

The Board, however, is only one element in the Canadian criminal justice system.

Many others will have dealt with an offender before he or she appears before the Board, including social workers, psychologists, police, Crown attorneys, judges, provincial prison staff, provincial probation and of course parole officers and other Correctional Service of Canada staff.

As you know, Parole Board decisions are made in accordance with very specific criteria and an assessment of the offender’s risk to re-offend.

The CCRA includes two basic principles which guide the Board:

1. that the protection of society be the paramount consideration in the determination of any case; and,
2. that the Board make the least restrictive determination consistent with the protection of society.

In order to assess an offender’s risk to re-offend, Board members must undertake a thorough risk assessment of all available relevant information.

To do this, the Board depends on information from a variety of sources, including police services, Crown attorneys, the courts, federal/provincial correctional services, parole officers, psychologists, victims of crime, and the list goes on.

As you can see, this represents a large quantity of information.

Equally important, however, is the quality of the information, and the details provided in it.

And this is why the CSC, those of you in this room, play a particularly important role in helping the Board achieve its mandate, and why a partnership approach between our organizations is so important.

You are the ones working on the ground directly with these offenders. You have first-hand experience and knowledge of offenders developed over an extended period, particularly parole officers.

The Board is therefore very dependent on CSC and the information that you provide to us, such as assessments for decision, the offender’s correctional plan, psychological and psychiatric evaluations, release plans, and recommendations regarding special conditions.

Unlike other partners, Parole officers play a key advisory role to Board members, and a very important role in the hearing process.

Beyond CSC’s role in the hearing room though, our mandates and operations are closely linked in many other ways, including our shared information needs and our legislative responsibilities through the CCRA.

The various legislative changes currently being put forward by the Government have implications for both our organizations, and the Transformation Agenda that CSC is currently in the process of implementing have implications for the Board as well.

The Commissioner and I have met to discuss these and other shared issues, and continue to talk regularly about ways to work together as effectively as possible to ensure the efficiency and success of the corrections and conditional release system.

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the start of my presentation, those of us in the criminal justice field are operating under an increasingly challenging environment.

What we all share, however, is a strong commitment to public protection and the safe reintegration of offenders.

I look forward to an ongoing dialogue with CSC, as well as with the Board’s other criminal justice partners, in the year ahead.

Initiatives such as this event are an excellent way to ensure this happens, and I hope you enjoy very productive and fruitful discussions.

Thank you.