Evidence of meeting #107 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was complaints.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marilyn King  Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

Yes. The list of dispositions is what I had indicated. It can be either a dismissal.... If there's no merit to it or it doesn't amount to really much.... A lot of them are decision based as well. They really want to change the decision, and there's no real conduct there. Those would be dismissals or, if it doesn't meet the threshold for a hearing but requires some remedial step, there may be advice in person or an advice letter that goes to the justice of the peace, or it can be a referral to the chief justice, which is viewed to be a significant disposition where you have to go to meet privately with the chief justice, possibly with conditions or an order for a hearing. That's the first step.

If it goes to a public hearing, it can be a warning, a reprimand, an order of apology, and further measures like education or treatment, a suspension up to 30 days with no pay, a suspension with pay, or a recommendation to the attorney general for removal from office.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

What is the general timeline for a complaint to be investigated so that people can know what the outcome is?

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

I'd have to say that we've never measured that, because it really varies. If it's a very straightforward one that requires one court transcript, for example, maybe that would just take a few months, but it can be more complicated, a very long proceeding that requires many transcripts or one that requires interviewing witnesses. For example, the one where I indicated the justice of peace was removed from office involved sexually inappropriate conduct, and I think in that case over 30 witnesses were interviewed. That took a considerable period of time. That one took longer. During the process, he raised a lot of legal arguments, so that one took a couple of years.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm afraid I need to end that there.

Mr. Whalan.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the witness for her public service. It's quite substantial.

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

Thank you.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

The 2015 report that you sent is really interesting. It seems like you're carrying and resolving about 40 complaints per year through that process. Is that roughly still the run right now for your office?

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

Until the annual reports are tabled, I can't give public information out on that.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Okay.

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

There is a tabling requirement in the legislation. This is the most recent one that has been tabled, so it's the last one I can speak to.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Thanks, Ms. King.

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

You've seen the numbers in there.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Yes.

Ms. King, were you involved with the administration of the review council back in 2015 as well?

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

I've been with the review council since January 2008.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

For the year 2015, what roughly was the overall cost for administering the review council?

11:35 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

Honestly, I don't know that. I'm sorry. I didn't bring that kind of information. I don't know. I'd wouldn't want to guess at that.

Although I don't know the cost, I can tell you that we are a relatively small office. I'm the only lawyer. There are two assistant registrars who are not lawyers. There is one administrative assistant. These four people support the council, and I also support an analogous Ontario judicial council that takes complaints about provincial judges, so we have to be pretty efficient.

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I'm not trying to say that we need to skimp on the administration of justice and preservation of the—

11:40 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I just want to get a sense of what size office we're talking about to administer the process.

11:40 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

It seems that the number....

Go ahead.

11:40 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

I was just going to say that it is a small office. If you're going to recommend something, I would recommend maybe that you go a little bit bigger. I am the registrar, so I oversee day-to-day operations. I provide legal advice and legal services to both councils. I support all of the public hearings. I assist in drafting documents, and I'm the media spokesperson.

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

I know you didn't get an opportunity to delve deeply into the structure that we're trying to make some recommendations on, but the IRB has four panels, an immigration division, a refugee division, and then an appeals division for each of those. If I tried to draw some analogy, the lower levels of the immigration and the refugee divisions have roughly the same number of people that the chief justices have. Those folks are all unionized public servants. The appeal division would be Governor in Council appointments.

Do you see any issues that might arise in the context of your review process were the justices of the peace to be unionized? It's a hypothetical question.

11:40 a.m.

Registrar, Justices of the Peace Review Council

Marilyn King

I don't think I can answer that question. I'd have to really think about that. I'd be reluctant to answer that on the fly. I am, after all, a lawyer. I'd need to think about that.

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL

Fair enough. It's just one of the things that we're coming to and struggling with. I just thought that you had an opinion, maybe it would be insightful.

With respect to the other level, then, the Ontario Judicial Council, what are some of the key differences between the procedures you have in place for reviewing judicial misconduct as opposed to justice of the peace misconduct?