Thank you for the question.

The right to information, as the ombudsman has noted in her 2021 report, she considers a “gateway right”. I think everyone at this table can agree that the right to information is very important. Victims have always wanted information.

There's an article we've prepared that looks more closely at this right to information, but particularly in the context of the impact of trauma on learning and what victims, those who are particularly traumatized by their victimization experience, are actually able to retain in terms of memory being affected, and the different strategies for that. The article is called “The Right to Information” and we can forward the link to you. It is available online in both official languages in the “Victims of Crime Research Digest” of 2016.

Importantly, what we looked at, too, was that, at the outset, even before the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights came into force, the Department of Justice reached out to key victim stakeholders through the Policy Centre for Victim Issues and conducted a survey to really determine how these stakeholders wanted to learn about the CVBR, in what format, in what mode and on what particular topics, exactly as you referred to: the factual aspects of how the criminal justice system works, actual specific amendments to the Criminal Code, etc.

These results came in, and we had 604 responses. There were 38 from individuals and 62 from organizations all across the country, with some really good marching orders in terms of how to get that information out there. That's one aspect of the article. The other parts talk about research from different fields, such as psychology, to really understand the right to information and the particular group of victims.

I hope that begins to answer your question.

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