International Trade committee  Can you repeat the question, please?

International Trade committee  I've never alleged.... I assume all arbitrators come at this without bias.

International Trade committee  There is empirical research, including some I've done, that looks at systematic trends. It's social science research. It doesn't prove causation; it proves correlation. But there is evidence to support concerns—

International Trade committee  Parties make that claim themselves, investors and states. They challenge individual—

International Trade committee  Oh, no.

International Trade committee  Basically, the problem is we should have the usual institutional safeguards of judicial independence in the final resolution of public law. These arbitrators are deciding whether or not the public should pay potentially billions of dollars because a government passed legislation.

International Trade committee  With judicial independence, the concern is to remove reasonable perceptions of bias.

International Trade committee  We want to ensure confidence of the parties and the public.

International Trade committee  On actual bias, I never allege actual bias. That's not the requirement from the point of view of judicial independence, because to establish actual bias, you really require an admission from the person. We don't put judges on the stand and ask them, “Are you biased?”

International Trade committee  We can test—

International Trade committee  Yes, it's a very odd situation in that the federal government may conclude a treaty without the provinces having ratified it. The treaty may then be interpreted by these arbitrators as having been violated by a province, but then it's not entirely clear who should bear the cost o

International Trade committee  The last I heard several months ago is that this is still under discussion in Europe, and the European Commission has indeed committed to the member states that it will not finalize the CETA until it's resolved politically, especially in the European Council in discussions with t

International Trade committee  I think that's a very important point in that since investor-state arbitration was on the table for the European Union in its relations with the United States, many European officials at the national level and at the regional level have expressed concerns about assuming the fisca

International Trade committee  Yes, I'm loosely familiar with it.

International Trade committee  Frankly, that's an excellent question which I very much appreciate. First of all, I fully support mediation. ADR, alternative dispute resolution, is very positive, if it can save costs, if it can speed up the resolution of disputes. If the parties are more comfortable with reso