Justice committee  No, not specifically. I think one would find that there have been numbers of complaints filed at various human rights commissions, but as with other types of discrimination, such as sexual harassment and other things, when they're explicitly listed, they do not magically disappear from the society.

Justice committee  If there's time, could I just add one thing? As members would recall, one of the rationales for deleting section 13 was that the hate provisions in the Criminal Code were the more appropriate way of dealing with extreme speech. It underlines the importance of clarifying in the Criminal Code exactly what is covered...filling the gap in the promotion of genocide and clarifying the definition of identifiable group in the hate promotion speeches.

Justice committee  I think the minister has indicated a willingness and a commitment to look at section 13, but with Bill C-16, Parliament would have an opportunity more immediately to provide at least some protections in the criminal law.

Justice committee  May I just add one additional element? Canada is blessed to have a quite remarkable legal search tool called CanLII, which gathers cases from all across the country. This morning I took it upon myself to enter the search term “gender identity” in CanLII, and what I found was 4,091 hits: decisions from Ontario, from courts, from workplace compensation tribunals from the Northwest Territories, and others.

Justice committee  No, I'm not aware of any specific examples of that, but we can certainly undertake to confirm that. I would hesitate to say we can be comprehensive because of the way in which these matters unfold, but I'm not aware of any cases.

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. I would say it's a subset, but an important subset, of a much bigger question. So much of the criminal justice administration right now that is done provincially, done locally by city police forces, provincial police forces, or the RCMP, is not capturing a lot of data about the way the system is working.

Justice committee  I would add that there is a clear gap, in terms of some provisions certainly in the Criminal Code, in the sense that, as the minister has stated, the code will be interpreted narrowly, and so in order to determine whether or not “other similar factors” would include gender identity or gender expression, there would be an argument required that would not be required if the words were plainly stated in the provision.

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Don, or Elizabeth?

Justice committee  Just briefly, I can say on behalf of the minister that in respect to the earlier question on judicial appointments—as you know, the appointments to the specific claims tribunal are a bit different because they are of sitting judges—the minister is equally seized with the importance of ensuring that the specific claims tribunal vacancies are addressed and has taken steps to try to ensure that.

Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, I believe Marie-France Pelletier, from ATSSC, will be able to answer that question.

Justice committee  The spending, as the question indicates, is in respect of division 9 on security certificates and related closed proceedings. It does not relate to the administration of Bill C-51. Security certificates have been a part of the regime and have been evolved in accordance with Supreme Court decisions and practice over a number of years.

Justice committee  I'm sorry, I don't have that particular figure. That will depend on the demand for legal services involving various activities related to Bill C-51. We have been allocating some resources, for example, to training both departmental officials and others around the rules and guidelines and procedures that the law requires in respect of information sharing.

Justice committee  You mean the legal services review?

Justice committee  Maybe I'll answer that question, Mr. Chair. The first thing it points to is that we are trying to determine real live outcomes for Canadians in terms of the programs that we're delivering, and that is one metric. I should say that that metric was delivered before the budget decisions had been announced, and so it does not take account of the additional funding that will flow over the coming years.