First, did you or your predecessor consult our judiciary and the Canadian Bar Association prior to changing the composition of the committee from seven positions to eight--having four appointed by the federal government instead of three? You've made the point very well that over time there have been modifications to the way the federal government appoints judges, and many of those have been very welcome. My understanding is that in most of those cases, the government actually consulted the judiciary and the bar association before moving forward to make those changes.
Second, you've said that of the 13 judicial advisory committees, 12 are up and running. So you've gone forward with the change that your predecessor made to increase from three to four the number of members appointed by the federal government. One of those four members is from law enforcement. How many of the 12 members from law enforcement come from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police--are high-ranking police officers who have the managerial skills and are there to put into place performance evaluations, operational procedures, and all of that?
You've stated on the one hand that you don't really have any statistics on the appointments made by the government preceding you. But in your response to Mr. Moore you talked about how a number of those who were highly recommended appeared to come only from large firms in some provinces, whereas in some provinces that wasn't the case. So I'd like you to bring forth all of the statistical information you have--without the names, obviously--on the recommendations that were made over the last five years under your government and the previous government. Of the 13 JACs, how many were highly recommended, how many were recommended, and how many were not recommended? Which cities did those lawyers come from? Were they large cities? Did they come from large firms, small firms, or were they sole practitioners? You don't have to give us the names, so no personal information will be violated.
You've made those points several times in your responses to members of this committee, so you obviously have this information. I would like you to send that information to the members, through the chair.
Thank you.