You're quite correct that the selection of board members has been a matter of importance for the CCR for quite a long time. We felt, from very personal experience for most of us, that there was an inconsistency in the quality of appointees to the refugee board.
When the new selection process was proposed in 2004, Jean-Guy Fleury approached me and asked if I would be a member of the advisory panel. I said, “Are you asking me as the president of the CCR”—as I then was—“or as myself?” He said he was asking me as myself, as a lawyer from Atlantic Canada, and they wanted regional representation.
I debated it long and hard with the CCR executive. In fact, the first vote was that I would not participate. I felt strongly that since we had been promoting change to the appointment process, we should show our support for any proposed changes by participating. After much debate my executive agreed to allow me to sit on the panel.
When I joined the panel I made a public statement to the chair and the rest of the committee that I considered myself there as a representative of the CCR, not in my personal capacity, and if at any point I felt that the government was not living up to the commitment they had made in bringing forward these proposals, I would be quitting loudly and publicly. Recent events are basically the result of me following through on that promise.