I'll speak on the independence point.
My understanding is that it's the judges themselves who have recognized the existence of myths and stereotypes in sexual assault trials, beginning almost 30 years ago in decision like Seaboyer and as recently as Barton, and that there are significant issues in how trial judges continue to engage in myths and stereotypes about victims.
In a way, this need for judicial education was actually for a signal by the judiciary, and this could be seen as a Parliament responding to what the Supreme Court of Canada has pointed out over the last few years. If we see this kind of training as strengthening judicial competence to prevent errors in law, then this purpose of the training is to ensure that judges are well versed in the very complicated area of the law. We believe this is well within the boundaries of judicial independence.
As relates to social context, I think that it would be helpful to have a definition of what social context means. I know that the mandate letter has signalled certain things like impact of trauma and unconscious bias. We would like to see the fact that social context is linked to factors that have led to systemic inequality that have exacerbated these harmful myths and stereotypes in Canadian society.