Right. Thank you.
Ms. McCarthy just asked what is my safety plan, and that's the safety plan for her but also for me. What's my responsibility to these two individuals who have chosen mediation? No one compelled them.
What happened was that they all came to my office—I luckily have four floors in my office—and I put the husband on one floor and I put the wife on another. The wife was behind what we call our security barrier, because that's just our office. Not all mediators have that in their office and I'm fortunate to be able to do it. I had to shove a corporate closing into another part of the building.
Anyway, at the end of the day it was fine and everyone was able to do it. I ran up and down the stairs. I solved the case about a week and a half later, because it took some extra time to do it. Both parties were quite well represented, so it wasn't a problem of a power imbalance in respect of counsel's knowledge. They were on the eve of trial and they had about a couple of million dollars in the bank to fight about, and it was literally in the bank and all held, so there wasn't this power problem of either of them not having money to fight with their lawyer.
There was an opportunity, and it was a case where, despite the awful beginning, it was an appropriate case to mediate because the parties had proper power in the process. However, as the mediator, it was quite galling to receive these materials without any background thought to “Danny, you should know there's going to be domestic violence.” You should plan for it.
We are ready to do it. We screened these people.
There's a process of screening that I've been trained in and anyone who's a mediator and arbitrator in the province of Ontario must be trained with. The advisers, in my view, if they're recommending or considering mediation, should either be required to be trained in screening or, equally so, be required to send them out for screening by professional services. The legislation lacks that. By just saying advisers should consider it and use it.... I think the legislation says, “Unless the circumstances of the case are of such a nature that it would clearly not be appropriate to do so”.
While we can describe extreme situations.... The one I gave you was an extreme situation, but it was successful because the conditions had been met personally in my office, given they were physically apart, but also because counsel had done their work beforehand. I would urge you to very seriously consider that in my process.
I have two quick things to finish up, because I know Ms. McCarthy tells me I'm at seven minutes—