Last year, we identified all the organizations that represent lawyers of particular ethnicities, interests, or whatever, and we approached them again this year. This year, we felt that there was a better general knowledge out in the legal community about the process that was taking place.
As I mentioned last year, we also have people who occasionally write to us and recommend somebody. This is one of the debates about the process—the fact that some people might feel too modest to apply. We urge people, if they think they know somebody who should apply, to encourage them, and then we will write to them and say, “Your name has been forwarded to us as an excellent candidate. If you are interested, please review the materials. We warmly encourage you to apply.”
People know about the process, but I think the next step is working to try to reach out to the legal community to find ways of sharing knowledge about what it means to go to the Supreme Court of Canada, and also how important it is for people to apply to serve at the courts at the provincial level, the trial and appellate courts. I have discussed this with the minister, and if there is a role for our committee to play in this, we would be happy to do it.
At the moment, for example, there are quite a number of retired Supreme Court of Canada justices floating about the country, and now we will have the retired chief justice. It would be really interesting if they could be encouraged to do some round tables around the country to talk to people about the work of the court and what it means to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada, so that one could perhaps overcome some of those...maybe discourage people who ought not to apply, but also encourage people who might otherwise feel that they just don't know enough about it or that it's too strange. I think that making the Supreme Court of Canada something that is better known throughout the legal community is important.
I think we had very good communication encouraging people to apply, but from my perspective, that's the next step we could address, now that we've developed a process that we think works with the applicants we receive.