This is yet another attempt to incorporate the advice from the Canadian Bar Association. This time it is their recommendation number seven. They're not having a very good day here today.
This amendment proposes to allow judicial discretion, something we're very fond of over on this side, in allowing the introduction of a community impact statement, since the bill provides no definition of a community or criteria for its representatives' selection. The bill currently permits one individual to file a community impact statement without defining “community” or explaining how an individual should be determined. Accordingly, a judge should have discretion, because we trust judges, to allow or disallow a community impact statement.
This is simply to restore judicial discretion along the lines of the advice we received from the Canadian Bar Association.