Thank you, Mr. Fraser, for appearing before the committee today and sharing your extensive expertise with us.
I'd like to discuss the challenge of finding French-speaking or bilingual candidates for trials by judge and jury. We talked about that with another witness, Rénald Rémillard, the executive director of Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law inc. When he appeared, he said to the committee, and I quote:
That question has already been raised in some provinces. I know that Manitoba and British Columbia have looked into making up these juries. Each province uses different means. Manitoba, for example, uses health insurance card numbers to make up a list.
The issue is to ensure that the list is representative of the general population. I know that poses a problem in some provinces. We have, for example, approached francophone school boards or spokespersons from member associations to make lists. The issue of the make-up of juries has been a problem, but it is different from one province to the next. It is another example of Canadian diversity.
Does one particular province have a better model as far as making up bilingual juries is concerned? Is there a model that we could support?