In the statute right now it says that the minister is supposed to consult with the opposition parties with respect to all appointments to the board. That's been done over the years. I doubt whether the opposition parties--and I say this with respect--often paid as much attention to that as they maybe are now.
One of my recommendations is that you reconsider how these nominations or appointments are made to the board. I would even go so far as to say that they shouldn't be just consulted on, but receive the support of at least one of the opposition parties--some sort of situation where it's not just the government.
I pointed to the good example that Joe Clark made in the first place. When he set up the centre, he as a Conservative appointed a New Democrat to show a model.
I was also looking at the foreign policy statement of the government in 1995, which was a Liberal government. In that foreign policy statement they praised the International Centre for Human Rights as being an outstanding player in international human rights affairs. Here you had a Liberal government praising an institution set up by a Conservative and run by the former leader of the New Democrats. In my view, that is a non-partisan approach to human rights and the institution of Rights and Democracy.
So I urge you, Mr. Pearson, to look at a new way, a better way, of making these nominations. I understand that there was supposed to be a new honing process for order-in-council appointments by the Harper government, but it's never really come to fruition. That's for all appointments, not just these.