Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon, Minister.
Good afternoon, officials. Thank you for your attendance.
As usual, Minister, thank you for your frankness by slowly opening up that door to a broader discussion on justice issues. I didn't want to turn this into another detailed examination of Bill C-9 and Bill C-16, but there may be some tangential questions that I may be asking you on Bill C-16 issues.
I want to focus on one particular key area. You talked about the broader issue regarding community safety. One of the concerns that I have had for a number of years is the erosion of public trust in the federal institutions that we have here in Ottawa, but more importantly, a lack of trust in our criminal justice system. A lot of victims don't see it as a justice system, but rather a legal system.
One of the issues at play is obviously the Jordan timelines and the consequences that flow, such as the rising number of sex assaults that have been stayed over the last 10 years.
That's a broader area that I wanted you to focus in on, but let's focus in on judicial vacancies, because part of the problem is a lack of resources, whether they be vacancies at the federal level or vacancies with respect to administrative positions at the province. I think it's an opportunity for both the feds and the provinces to work together to ensure we have a responsive, functioning criminal justice system.
On the issue of vacancies, in 2023 we reached a high of 92, meaning that over 10% of federal judges' chairs across Canada sat empty, blocking the justice process across the country. Former justice minister Arif Virani said that he would fill vacancies and keep pushing all the way to get to 100%. To his credit, he did make substantial improvements in that number, in fact dropping it from 92 to the mid to high teens. However, that was two years ago, and right now we're seeing another rise in judicial vacancies.
Given that every year since the Liberals took office in 2015.... Would you agree with me, sir, that there have been hundreds and hundreds of applications per year for every judicial vacancy right across this country?