Justice committee  I would hope so. Yes, I would hope so.

Justice committee  I don't agree that that's the wording in the legislation.

Justice committee  I don't know how the section will be interpreted. It doesn't say anything about as a last resort.

Justice committee  Yes. I think the Canadian justice system has done quite well over the centuries without having these sorts of provisions in place.

Justice committee  Those are two very different things. It's one thing to say counsel instead of the accused personally should be cross-examining a witness or a victim in a case. It's another thing to say nobody on the defence side—

Justice committee  What I would say is this. We spend a lot of time talking about balancing competing interests, and that, indeed, is a very large part about your role and the role of the courts. But I guess what I would say is this: there are some rights that can't be balanced, such as the rights

Justice committee  The fundamental right to a fair trial and to make full answer in defence is so primary that I don't think—

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  I didn't say the rigor mortis part, but yes.

Justice committee  Sure. I'd be the last person to say that justice should be sacrificed to expediency. I guess what I'm raising here is that ultimately one concern, which I hear from everybody else on the panel as well, is that the amount of time it takes for litigation to come to a head is proble

Justice committee  I usually get to answer a cross-examination.

Justice committee  Yes, that's the normal rule, absolutely.

Justice committee  This is one of the questions that I have, because it would certainly normally be the case that the fundamental right to a fair trial would require disclosure of the identity of witnesses, the statements that have been—

Justice committee  I would hope so. If this provision doesn't mean what it perhaps means, if it doesn't mean that the accused isn't going to have any idea who the witnesses are who are testifying against him or her, I suppose I don't understand it but I guess I don't object to it. The difficulty

Justice committee  Perhaps I could comment on that, though, because I—