103. Board continued - The National Parole Board is hereby continued, to consist of not more than forty-five full-time members and a number of part-time members appointed by the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, to hold office during good behaviour for periods not exceeding ten years and three years, respectively.

[1992, c. 20, s. 103; 1993, c. 34, s. 57(F). ]

104. Chairperson and Executive Vice-Chairperson - The Governor in Council shall designate one of the full-time members of the Board to be its Chairperson and, on the recommendation of the Minister, one of the full-time members to be its Executive Vice-Chairperson.

105. (1) Membership - Members appointed to the Board shall be sufficiently diverse in their backgrounds to be able to collectively represent community values and views in the work of the Board and to inform the community with respect to unescorted temporary absence, parole and statutory release.

         (2) Part-time members - A part-time member of the Board has the same powers and duties as a full-time member of the Board.

         (3) Divisions - Each member of the Board other than the Chairperson and the Executive Vice-Chairperson shall be assigned to a division of the Board specified in the instrument of appointment.

         (4) Idem - All members of the Board are ex officio members of every division of the Board and may, with the approval of the Chairperson, sit on a panel of any division of the Board, subject to such conditions and during such periods as are approved by the Chairperson.

         (5) Policies - Members of the Board shall exercise their functions in accordance with policies adopted pursuant to subsection 151 (2).

         (6) Quorum - Subject to subsection 152(3), the review under this Part of any case within a particular class of cases shall be made by a panel that consists of at least the number of members of the Board specified in the regulations as the minimum number of members for cases of that class.

[1992, c. 20, s. 105; 1995, c. 42, s. 71(F). ]

106. (1) Substitute members - In the event that a full-time member of the Board is absent or unable to act, the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, may appoint a substitute member to act in the place of that member.

         (2) Idem - A substitute member appointed pursuant to subsection (1) has all the powers and duties of a full-time member of the Board, subject to any limitation on those powers and duties that the Chairperson directs.

107. (1) Jurisdiction of Board - Subject to this Act, the Prisons and Reformatories Act, the International Transfer of Offenders Act, the National Defence Act, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act and the Criminal Code, the Board has exclusive jurisdiction and absolute discretion

to grant parole to an offender;

to terminate or to revoke the parole or statutory release of an offender, whether or not the offender is in custody under a warrant of apprehension issued as a result of the suspension of the parole or statutory release;

to cancel a decision to grant parole to an offender, or to cancel the suspension, termination or revocation of the parole or statutory release of an offender;

to review and to decide the case of an offender referred to it pursuant to section 129; and

to authorize or to cancel a decision to authorize the unescorted temporary absence of an offender who is serving, in a penitentiary,

a life sentence imposed as a minimum punishment or commuted from a sentence of death,

a sentence for an indeterminate period, or

a sentence for an offence set out in Schedule I or II.

         (2) Offences under provincial Acts - The jurisdiction of the Board under subsection (1) extends to any offender sentenced to a sentence imposed under a provincial Act that is to be served in a penitentiary pursuant to section 743.1 of the Criminal Code, whether that sentence is to be served alone or concurrently with or consecutively to one or more other sentences imposed under an Act of Parliament or a provincial Act.

[1992, c. 20, s. 107; 1995, c. 22, s. 13, c. 42, ss. 28(E), 70(E), 71(F); 1998, c. 35, s. 110; 2000, c. 24, s. 36; 2004, c. 21, s. 40.]

Mooring v Canada (NPB) - [1996] 1 SCR 75, 104 CCC (3d) 97

- The NPB is not a Court of competent jurisdiction to grant s24 Charter remedies. Traditional rules of proof and evidence do not apply. The NPB is inquisitorial in nature. Exclusionary rules do not apply; rather, the NPB considers "all available information that is relevant", consistent with s101(b) of this Act. Section 101(a) states that the protection of society is paramount and is the guiding principle for admissibility of information. However there is a duty of fairness owed to the applicant and the information upon which the NPB acts must be reliable and persuasive. The Board, when deciding whether to exclude evidence on the basis of fairness, may consider other cases concerning s24(2) of the Charter, which are relevant but are not determinative.

R. v McKenna - (1994) 151 N.B.R. (2d) 236 (C.A.)

- The Court does not have jurisdiction to direct that a sentence for contempt be served without parole. An "offender", according to the s99 definitions, includes a person serving imprisonment under a sentence for contempt.

Donald v Canada (National Parole Board) - (1992), 15 W.C.B. (2d) 237 (BCSC), 1992 CanLII 172 (BC S.C.)

- The Court needs to exercise deference when reviewing decisions of the NPB, due to its specialization. The Court should only interfere where evidence, when viewed reasonably, could not support the NPB's findings.

Steele v Mountain Institution (Warden) - (1990), 60 C.C.C. (3d) 1, [1990] 2 S.C.R. 1 385, 80 C.R. (3d) 257

- This application was for habeas corpus, to review the continued detention of a prisoner in a penitentiary, pursuant to an indeterminate sentence fourty years earlier. After repeated refusals for parole, the prisoner was finally released but the release was terminated after he infringed the conditions by drinking alcohol and breaching curfew. The NPB denied any further release. The violations in question were considered by experts to be adjustment problems and the Court found that the applicant did not present an undue risk to society. The Court found that the Board failed to exercise its jurisdiction. The applicant's release was ordered and upheld on appeal, based on a finding that the NPB had not applied the criteria of s16(1)(a) of the Parole Act. The Court found that, if the NPB erred in exercising its duty to tailor an indeterminate sentence to the circumstances of the prisoner, there would be a violation of s12 of the Charter. The procedure to determine this would be an application for judicial review rather than an application for habeas corpus.

108. (1) Jurisdiction where no provincial Board - Where a provincial parole board has not been established in a province, the Board has, in respect of offenders serving sentences in a provincial correctional facility in that province, the same jurisdiction and discretion that it has in respect of offenders under paragraphs 107(1)(a) to (c).

         (2) Offences under provincial Acts - Subject to subsection (3), the jurisdiction of the Board under subsection (1) extends to any offender sentenced to a sentence imposed under a provincial Act that is to be served concurrently with or consecutively to a sentence imposed under an Act of Parliament.

         (3) Complementary legislation - Subsection (2) does not apply in a province until a day fixed by order of the Governor in Council made after the enactment of a provincial Act authorizing the Board to exercise the jurisdiction referred to in that subsection.

         (4) Where subsection (3) does not apply - This section shall be read without reference to subsection (3) with respect to any province in which subsection 14(1) of the Parole Act, as that Act read immediately before the coming into force of this section, was in force immediately before the coming into force of this section.

[1992, c. 20, s. 108; 1995, c. 42, ss. 69(E), 70(E). ]

109. Prohibition orders re vehicles, etc - The Board may, on application, cancel or vary the unexpired portion of a prohibition order made under subsection 259(1) or (2) of the Criminal Code after a period of

ten years after the commencement of the order, in the case of a prohibition for life; or

five years after the commencement of the order, in the case of a prohibition for more than five years but less than life.

110. Clemency - The Board shall, when so directed by the Minister, make or cause to be made any investigation or inquiry desired by the Minister in connection with any request made to the Minister for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy.

111. Dissemination of information - The Board shall maintain

a program of exchange of information with the other components of the criminal justice system; and

a program to communicate its policies and programs to offenders, to victims of crime, to victims' groups, to other groups and organizations with a special interest in matters dealt with under this Part, and to the general public.