Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for coming today and for your opening statements.
One thing I've noticed in the discussion around this piece of legislation is that there have been concerns expressed over what role Parliament plays in judicial education. We heard from the Canadian Judicial Council and the institute, who have stressed very much that this kind of training already happens. There have been concerns expressed by some in the legal profession that if Parliament intrudes too far with this bill, we are interfering with judicial independence.
We've heard from some of you say with regard to possible amendments to this bill that maybe you'd like to see a bit more specificity. I'm curious about that. As the bill is currently written, it closely reflects the amendments that were made to the previous version by the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee. They were feeling that this made it more in line with the constitutional requirement of judicial independence.
If we already have a mandate that judges have to undertake to participate in continuing education and the fact that we have a reporting requirement that has to include the information about the seminars, Ms. Kim, how do you see Parliament's role in this? Can you elaborate more on the specificity you'd like to see in this bill with respect to how the training should include the diversity that is in Canadian society?