We are a democratic organization, but we use a representative system. The highest policy group within our organization is our national council. For lack of a better analogy, it's our Parliament. It has 244 voting members who are elected by the membership from across Canada, and they serve to consider, debate, and pass resolutions that deal with a whole host of topics, including the issue of judicial appointments.
The Canadian Bar Association has been concerned about the judicial appointment process going back to actually the turn of the 20th century. If you read through the McKelvey report—in which Professor Russell had a very big hand, in terms of some of the work that went into that particular report—you can see that we are not latecomers to the process.
In terms of my comfort level in being able to say that what I am doing is representing the views of the Canadian Bar Association, this is through a very diligent process by which we seek consultation and input. Like Parliament, we do not have referenda of all the members on every issue that comes before us, but the record is pretty clear over the years that the view of the Canadian Bar Association is to support transparency in the selection process, and a merit base.