Evidence of meeting #45 for Justice and Human Rights in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was justice.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I think I have the list, Mrs. Jennings. First of all, you asked whether I consulted. No—
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
You made the point that previous justice ministers consulted widely on these. Either they did or they didn't. The first time, in 1988, there were extensive consultations. In 1991 the decision was made by the federal Minister of Justice. There were two changes to the process under the Liberal administration. I believe there was consultation on one of those cases, and on the other cases the decision was made by the federal Minister of Justice.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
Thank you.
Did you or your predecessor consult about this change?
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
In this case, the decision was made by the previous Minister of Justice.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I can't speak for him, Mrs. Jennings, but I understand that he made the decision. I'm not in a position to say how he arrived at that decision.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
If you read some of the newspaper reports and the statements of Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, when your predecessor made the announcement that he was going to change the composition, she rebuked him publicly for compromising the independence of the panel--or the JACs, as you call them--and the fact that there had been no prior consultation. That's public knowledge. So how can you as minister not be aware of that, when you were the House leader at the time and therefore responsible for guiding the government's agenda in the House?
But I would ask you to move on to the question of whether there are police chiefs on any of the JACs.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Madam Jennings, I indicated the decision was made, as is the prerogative of the justice minister. That decision was made by the previous justice minister. And again, the history of this is that sometimes the Ministers of Justice have consulted widely or narrowly, and it's up to each individual Minister of Justice.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
You're correct. I just wanted to know whether or not he had.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
With respect to where appointments come from, you quoted me saying that the highly recommended appointments were coming only from large law firms. I didn't say that. I said there was a tendency that was noticed that it would be more likely that a larger firm from a larger community would be highly recommended. It was not necessarily exclusive, but there was a tendency in that regard.
With respect to the statistics—
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
The minister is not actually answering the specific.... I did not say that he made that statement. What I said was that in response to Mr. Moore, he made the point that the highly recommended tended to come from.... So I'm asking you to make—
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Oh, okay. I apologize. I didn't actually hear the word “tended”.
The way I heard it--and that could be my fault--you said that I said that they were coming from there, and I believe there is a tendency. If I didn't make that clear, I want to make it clear.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
Thank you.
But the point is, whether you made a categorical statement or you said “tended to come from”, it would have to be based on some fact. That would mean you actually have some statistics on the issue in order to say “it tended”, or “it did”.
You're saying you said “it tended”. You have some facts. I'm asking you to provide to the committee, through the chair—
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I've not made a statistical analysis of it, Madam Jennings. Our observation, looking at these, was that there was a tendency on both those counts. There was a tendency, for instance, in one province to have a fairly substantial majority of the individuals get the highly recommended category, whereas in other provinces there would be a very low percentage of the highly recommended.
I'm informed that this information would be accessible from the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. I'm sure, with a request by your committee, he would be glad to provide any information like that.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
And the third question, are there chiefs of police on any of the 12?
5 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
That's already up on the website, and I would be glad to forward to you a copy of those individuals. It is already public knowledge.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
Thank you, Ms. Jennings.
Minister, the time has actually concluded, but would you possibly make yourself available to us for another ten minutes?
5 p.m.
Conservative