An Act to amend the Witness Protection Program Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act

Short title: Safer Witnesses Act Bill C-51 (41-1) Status: Royal assent received Type: House Government Bill Sponsor: Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety (Provencher) Latest stage: Royal assent Legislative

summary <div>A Legislative

Summary is currently being prepared for this bill by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament. A pre-release version of this publication is available to parliamentarians and their staff, and can be obtained by submitting a request or contacting the Library of Parliament. Meanwhile, the following executive

summary is available.<br/><br/>On December 2012, the Minister of Public Safety introduced Bill C-51,

An Act to amend the Witness Protection Program Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act (Safer Witnesses Act), in the House of Commons and it was given first reading.<br/><br/>The bill amends the Witness Protection Program Act.

Among other things it:<br/><br/>• provides for the designation of a provincial or municipal witness protection program so that certain provisions of that Act apply to such a program;<br/>• authorizes the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to coordinate, at the request of an official of a designated provincial or municipal program, the activities of federal departments, agencies and services in order to facilitate a change of identity for persons admitted to the designated program;<br/>• adds prohibitions on the disclosure of information relating to persons admitted to designated provincial and municipal programs, to the means and methods by which witnesses are protected and to persons who provide or assist in providing protection;<br/>• specifies the circumstances under which disclosure of protected information is nevertheless permitted;<br/>• exempts a person from any liability or other punishment for stating that they do not provide or assist in providing protection to witnesses or that they do not know that a person is protected under a witness protection program;<br/>• expands the categories of witnesses who may be admitted to the federal Witness Protection Program to include persons who assist federal departments, agencies or services that have a national security, national defence or public safety mandate and who may require protection as a result;<br/>• allows witnesses in the federal Witness Protection Program to end their protection voluntarily;<br/>• extends the period during which protection may, in an emergency, be provided to a person who has not been admitted to the federal Witness Protection Program; and<br/>• makes a consequential amendment to another Act.</div> House of Commons — First reading: Completed (2012-12-11) House of Commons — Second reading: Completed (2013-02-12) House of Commons — Consideration in committee: Completed (2013-03-26) House of Commons — Report stage: Completed (2013-05-23) House of Commons — Third reading: Completed (2013-06-03) Senate — First reading: Completed (2013-06-04) Senate — Second reading: Completed (2013-06-11) Senate — Consideration in committee: Completed (2013-06-18) Senate — Third reading: Completed (2013-06-20) Full bill text is not included in the LEGISinfo JSON export.

Open the official Parliament of Canada bill page for the complete document.