Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My first question is for Ms. Landau and the Canadian Bar Association representatives. My team and I found some very interesting points in your respective briefs concerning the place of children in the procedure. My question will therefore focus on representation of the child by a third party.
On the one hand, Ms. Landau, you discuss the views of the child in point 7 of your brief. You also talked about that today. You emphasize how important it is to include opportunities for children to express their views. You also add the following:
However, we do not believe that judges are the best choice for interviewing children... Child specialists are more qualified...
On the other hand, recommendation 27 in the Canadian Bar Association's brief reads as follows:
27. The CBA Sections recommend adding the following to 16(3)(h-i):
(i) protect a child from exposure to or involvement in parenting conflict.
We find these proposals entirely warranted and worthwhile. A person would thus express the views of the child rather than have those views transcribed in a report, as is proposed in certain briefs that we've received as part of this study.
Based on your recommendations, could you tell me whether it would be appropriate to provide in the act for the option of the child being represented by a third party, who would listen to the child, understand the child's view and represent him or her throughout the divorce proceeding?
I'll let you decide which of you will answer first.