Thank you very much.
Thank you, gentleman, for appearing here today. It's very interesting.
It's good to have the BC Civil Liberties Association here. I remember very clearly when, as a student back in the mid-1970s at the University of Windsor, I invited the BC Civil Liberties Association. There was an individual—it's on the tip of my tongue—who was a sort of spokesperson for them at that time. He was a real star. This was, quite frankly, before the charter. The discussion I remember was about the Canadian Bill of Rights.
Thank you very much for your comments.
I will start with you, Mr. Paterson. It's very distressing. You mentioned some of the testimony that we have heard with respect to area of family law. You gave statistics. Within the province, within a short period of time, I think you said it went from around 10,000 cases to around 3,600.
What is it about family law? Most lawyers will tell you—and it's been my own experience—that nothing is more traumatic for somebody to go through than some of the issues with respect to family law. I have met many people who I thought were more deeply affected, quite frankly, than were people going through the criminal justice system, as traumatic as that can be. Yet we hear consistently that somehow family law just doesn't seem to cut it.
What is the excuse? What are the issues? What are your thoughts on why that particular area seems to take a beating?