It's a fair comment. I look very carefully at any suggestion that comes from Mr. Cotler.
The reason why it's phrased as it is there is that it's in direct response to the Code-LeSage report, which recommended against putting in a statutory or, as they termed it, “monolithic definition” of what may constitute a mega-trial. They said that for the proper administration of justice it's necessary to designate this; they would have confidence in the chief judge or the chief justice.
Again, when we were putting these together, we could have gone against what they were saying, but it seemed to me to make sense to not narrow it down. As you pointed out, in my response to Mr. Comartin I said that sometimes it's very difficult. Just because you have more than one accused, it doesn't mean it's going to be overly complex or that it could come into what we refer to as a mega-trial.
But again, I'd rather have this decided on a case-by-case basis. It's open, of course, to defence counsel, the crown, or the judge himself or herself to make that application, so we thought we'd go with what the Code-LeSage report says and--