Thank you.
We're having interesting discussions on a lot of things going on here today.
I'm still not clear in regards to the question brought up by Mr. Comartin, and maybe he can help me with this. It's the makeup of the JAC committee. Who is that going to be? Wasn't that the gist of your question? That's what's going on in my mind.
I was the principal of a high school, and I had to hire teachers quite often. On the selection committee we had the superintendent of schools and me, two members from the school board, both of whom happened to be farmers—this was over a 15-year period—and three people from the parent advisory committee at large. Sometimes there would be a nurse or a housewife or a policeman—just people at large.
We'd sit on a committee, and we'd have to select somebody to fill the job. When I went to these committees, I knew the superintendent was going to look for the education. How educated are you? What degrees do you have? I knew there were a couple on there who thought that women should be teachers and men should be farmers, and that they would be looking more towards the women. So I knew that given its makeup, that committee had preferences well in advance of beginning any discussions on the selection.
I don't see how anybody could get on any kind of committee and not have some kind of idea in the back of their mind of what they'd like to see for a teacher. Why wouldn't they feel the same way about what kind of a person they'd like to see for a judge? I don't care if it's a police officer or a high school principal. I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like see for a judge, and I think Mr. Comartin would know what that would be. It wouldn't be a softy; it would be a hard man, who would say the punishment's got to fit the crime. And I want to move from there.
Now, I don't know who the best judge would be. A lot of times I didn't even know who I thought would be the best teacher, but a lot of times I had to go by that gut feeling, just knowing that if that person was in front of a group of children I could rely on them to do the best job possible to relate to them. I want the same thing to come out of judges, and I think these JAC committees could do it. The makeup of them, to me, isn't nearly as important as the objective of the judges across this land. What are we trying to achieve here?
The public, the ones who pay the bills, are saying they're not happy. You're right, a poll would show that they're not very happy with some of the decisions.
Last week, a nine-year sentence was handed out in Calgary. Is that correct, Art? They had an appeal, and it was reduced to seven. There was a big flare-up because of the appeal. The judge decided it was too stiff and lowered it. Well, the war was on. Calgary is not even in my riding, but it's close enough that I had people coming into my office demanding that we straighten up this judicial system. What is going on that this is happening?
All I'm saying is that I think we're putting way too much emphasis on the makeup of the committee. These are people of all walks of life. I almost felt as though you were implying that the police were a special interest group, and I really object to that. I hope that's not true, but I felt that way, and I wanted you to know that. They are not a special interest group, nor is anybody on these committees, should that be the case. I don't want anybody there for the purpose of pushing their own agenda, but I'm still looking for an answer as to who's going to decide who goes on these committees and what they should be made up of?
You said something about writing a book of regulations, that there should be a book of regulations to follow. Well, who's going to write the book? That's where I'm getting all confused. We're wandering off into different questions about activism and about this and that. I want to stick with the JAC committees. Who are they made up of? Why are they on there? Why should some be eliminated and some not?
I certainly don't believe they should all be lawyers. We've got all lawyers in this committee, and that drives me nuts. We've got a bunch of special interest groups over there.