Am I the last speaker?
It's going to be very short.
My colleagues made some good points. Having participated in two of the last three nomination processes, I would just make a minor correction. The same process was followed for the nominations of both Judge Wagner and Judge Nadon. In the first case, everyone was unanimous in terms of being satisfied with the outcome of the process. In the second case, however, everyone was unanimous in their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the process. The nomination even gave rise to a Supreme Court challenge and subsequent ruling. We may have been on the right track, but somewhere along the way, something went wrong. So it would be a good idea to take another look at it.
Picking up on what my fellow member just said, I have to say it would be unfortunate if my Conservative friends were to throw in the towel after making such a collective and significant effort to come up with a better process.
What a shame it would be to throw in the towel now, given that the Conservatives widely criticized how previous governments had handled the matter over the years. I agree with my fellow member on that point. We weren't raised that way. As the saying goes,
“If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again”.
I think we were almost there. As my colleague, Philip Toone, said, it wouldn't take very long and we could always negotiate some time to do it, even if we had to meet outside normal committee hours. Robert and I sat on the Ad Hoc Committee on the Appointment of Supreme Court of Canada Justices that met during the summer. I was on it for two summers. We also did an intensive study of the prostitution bill at that time. Given that we're dealing with an institution as important as the Supreme Court of Canada, not to mention all other federal courts, I would think we could find a bit of time to do this study.
Although we can't reveal what the committees discussed, we may have a good idea about how to improve the process so we don't make the same mistakes.
It may not be as complicated as the government is suggesting. As I have already mentioned, this is an issue of interest to many. Conferences have been held on the subject. Let's not let others dictate what we should put in place. Let's show some leadership here.
That is my final word on the subject.