Thank you.
Again, it sort of meshes what we're talking about with what we heard out west, and it's the general concept of judicial independence and accountability. Those are the two horns of the dilemma, in that I think everybody would agree it's important to have an independent judiciary. There's no question. But we certainly heard from some witnesses out west, and occasionally here, that there is a lack of judicial accountability. How is this relevant, you're probably wondering by looking at the ceiling. What I mean, Mr. Minister, is that this bill itself is dealing in part with...I wouldn't say curbing, but at least better defining to what extent judges will have discretion in awarding time credit for dead time served.
On the other hand, I thought your comments were very proper, encouraging, and just what you'd expect a Minister of Justice to say about our judges determining the law as it's written by Parliament, which is what I said out west. Frankly, the House of Commons is responsible for writing the laws, and if there's a problem with it, it may lie with us as parliamentarians, as lawmakers, and more so, even as the Minister of Justice, who proposes the laws to the lawmakers.
We heard a number of people say that the problem lay with judges. Particularly, I think the comment was in British Columbia, where there were studies talking about leniency and all that sort of thing.
My general question is this. You converse with attorneys general. I know my own attorney general, T.J. Burke, the first aboriginal attorney general in Canada, talks to chief justices at provincial and federal levels and talks about managing court time and all that sort of thing. I know there is a Canadian Judicial Council, which sort of oversees the issue of inappropriate behaviour. Are you confident, Mr. Minister, first of all, that our judiciary is acting independently—I think that's a given—but also that there is accountability? Do you foresee any changes necessary other than from time to time tweaking the law with respect to discretion? If one were to believe everything one heard from some of these people, like Darryl Plecas—I'll put it on the table—a lot of this is a judge-made problem.