Bill C-3 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Judges Act and the Criminal Code

This enactment amends the Judges Act to restrict eligibility for judicial appointment to persons who undertake to participate in continuing education on matters related to sexual assault law and social context. It also amends the Judges Act to provide that the Canadian Judicial Council should report on seminars offered for the continuing education of judges on matters related to sexual assault law and social context. Finally, it amends the Criminal Code to require that judges provide reasons for decisions in sexual assault proceedings.

Judges Act

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

No.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Following up on the motion by the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, I hope that all parties can find a way to reach agreement on Monday and get this bill to committee. We need to get the committee work started on this bill.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

I do not believe that falls under a point of order.

We will now go to questions and comments. The hon. member for Trois-Rivières.

[Louise Charbonneau, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for her speech.

Does she think women who were victims of rape are being given enough credibility? According to what the minister said, police officers are the first ones in charge of deciding whether the women's statements are credible.

Does she believe it is okay to wait until the matter is before a judge?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Trois-Rivières for her question.

From what I understand, her question had to do with the credibility of women who are raped, and, in particular, sex workers. Sex workers have the same rights as all other women, including the right to protect themselves against violence and sexual assault.

I think it is also a matter of educating and training people. We are talking about police officers, judges, lawyers and, especially, men in our society. Men are also our colleagues. You do not have to be a woman to be a feminist. There are men who believe it is important to defend women's rights.

It is awful, but it is well known that men do not always believe victims, especially when the victim is a sex worker.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I always listen with great fascination to my colleague from the Green Party. She always presents her points with compassion and the utmost consideration of all factors involved.

I would like to ask the member two questions. Does she believe that more females need to be in the judiciary, as well as more females with diverse backgrounds? She spoke about indigenous cultures being part of the justice system and that when it comes time to making decisions and listening to these victims, there has to be a cultural sensitivity. Does she agree there is not only an appalling lack of female representation on the bench but also ethno-culturally diverse female representation, and that including more of both would help in some cases? Also, can the member speak more to the urgency of why we should only have first reading of the bill?

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if it were not for COVID, I would be sitting closer to my dear colleague. Our assigned seats allowed me to have frequent conversations with the member for Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle.

I would absolutely agree that the demographics of the bench are pale, male and stale. It is just what it is.

I became a lawyer in 1983, and when I started law school, one-third of the class was women, and that was a big change. One of my friends, Anne Derrick, is a trail-blazing activist lawyer. She is now sitting on the bench in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, and she is fantastic. So there are changes happening. However, diversity in ethnicity, diversity in religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as indigenous lawyers and judges, are desperately needed, as are indigenous-led police forces that have the trust of a community because they have the community's back.

To the second question from my hon. colleague, we need to get this bill through speedily. There have been far too many delays in the last Parliament, and I hope that all parties can find a way to advance the bill without having to repeat all the steps that we did in the last Parliament and have the unanimous support that the bill enjoyed.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Before we go to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, I will let him know that there are only about nine minutes remaining, and not the full 10 minutes that he would usually get. We are coming close to the end of Government Orders today. I will give him the signal in the usual way as we get close to that time.

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Mississauga East—Cooksville, and I will be brief, having participated all day in this debate.

This bill would do four significant things. It would restrict eligibility for judicial appointments to those candidates for the Superior Court who will undertake to participate in continuing education; have curriculum set on sexual assault law and social context in consultation with groups and organizations, and judges would set that curriculum; have judges, through the National Judicial Institute and the Canadian Judicial Council, provide to the minister an annual report to be tabled in Parliament about the seminars that have been provided and the number of people who had attended; and have judges be required to provide reasons to ensure transparency and confidence in the administration of justice with respect to sexual assault law.

Actually, that is all I need to say. We know that this bill started with Rona Ambrose from the other side of the aisle. It is something that the government supports, and I believe it is something that the Conservatives and all parties in this House support. If no one else stands at this point, we could have this moved to a vote on Monday and passed after Question Period, which is what I think we should do now.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I recognize the member has a lot of experience, not only with the bill before us, but also in his private life when he was dealing with files.

As I indicated today, there were some awful things that happened in Toronto when it came to decisions at the provincial court involving intoxication, and I would like the member's insight on that. How do we, as a federal government, lead when we see this happening to women? If intoxication can be used as part of a defence, what happens next?

When we look at sexual assault, especially with our youth in university and college, the numbers are profound. We see huge numbers in that 18- to 20-year-old age category. I am just wondering what we can do to make sure that we not only have leadership here but also have leadership throughout the country. How we can help protect young women and girls?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member has raised this question at different points in the debate today, and it is an important point. Ensuring our court system is hospitable to those who come before it is critical in terms of the administration of justice, credibility and confidence in the administration of justice. Nowhere is this more acute than in the context of a survivor of sexual assault.

The situation the member raises, as the minister outlined earlier today, is something that touches on provincial responsibility for the administration of justice. The issue of how that case proceeds and the appeals that follow therefrom are the purview of the provincial attorney general in that case. It is something that we are following closely as we work collaboratively with all parties in this House toward ensuring a hospitable and sensitized court environment for sexual assault survivors, among many others.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Rona Ambrose, as those in the House will well know, is very special. I am so glad she brought this bill forward. It has been delayed a lot, and we will what happens in the coming weeks, days or hours.

I am extremely worried about the indigenous community, particularly women and girls who often do not get a second chance. I wonder if we have looked at this bill closely enough. I talked to our attorney general in Saskatchewan, because Saskatchewan, like P.E.I., really endorses the bill, but we have issues on the indigenous side of it.

Women and girls in that community often do not get the second chances. Have we done enough consultation with the indigenous communities on the bill?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, frankly, I share the member's concern with respect to the impacts of the bill and how we could start to address the very acute needs of those who are in our criminal justice system, as complainants in this context, particularly indigenous women. That was a subject of some interventions I made with respect to how this dovetailed with what we found with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry, which shows that sexual violence is disproportionately large against indigenous women. It is something we are cognizant of in Saskatchewan and across the country.

Have consultations occurred? Yes, they have. The position on this side of the House is that we should get this back into committee as fast as possible so any further fine tuning with respect to the concerns he rightfully raises can be made with proposed amendments at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls to justice notes that apathy from police forces is also indicative of ongoing colonial violence, racism and sexism, re-victimizing indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples.

Will the Liberals commit to also extending the proposed sexual assault and social context to police services? This certainly needs to be looked at and I hope the government will consider it right now in light of the conversation we have been having in Canada. I hope I get a response.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as a procedural matter, that proposal, as valid as it is, would be beyond the scope of this bill, which is targeting judges. There is a lot of validity in what he has raised. I point him to the fact that the Minister of Public Safety's mandate letter talks about the need for cultural competency and unconscious bias training for law enforcement agents. Should that type of training be occurring with our federally regulated law enforcement officials? Absolutely, it should. As the MMIWG rightfully identified, this is part of the problem with systemic racism and discrimination against indigenous communities.