Justice Committee on Oct. 29th, 2020

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I don't mean to rush you, but the clock is ticking.

Is there a process to evaluate a judge's ability to hear a case in French?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

At the Supreme Court level, yes, there is. Judges have had to take a test.

For other court judges, there is a way to evaluate their skills. For federal and superior court judges, although it's considered an asset to be proficient in their second official language, it's not a prerequisite.

That applies to the nine justices on the Supreme Court.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you, Mr. Lametti.

I'm so sorry to have to cut you off. We're trying to keep a very tight timeline here.

Thank you, Mr. Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It was good thinking to give me an extra 30 seconds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I'm trying to keep it tight.

Mr. Garrison, you have two and a half minutes, sir. Please go ahead.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you very much.

I want to return to the question of sex work. In doing so, I first want to acknowledge that there is a difference between human trafficking—which is prevalent in many industries, not just in sex work—and actual sex work.

My question to the minister, which he wasn't allowed to answer before, was about the mandated review of Bill C-36. I want to give him a chance to answer that briefly.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thanks again for the question.

Sex work is legal, according to the Bedford decision. A bunch of things around it were criminalized by the previous government. That's what we have to review. I do hope to be in a position to be able to do that. Again, I can't promise you a date, given current events.

I do understand very well the difference between human trafficking, which we abhor, and sex work, which has been found to be legal. I know that you're well aware that I hear this often from my colleague Hedy Fry as well. I appreciate those interventions on the part of both of you.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister.

My main concern, of course, is the safety of sex workers and their ability to support their families during COVID.

Can I turn quickly, in the very little time we have left, to the rise of online hate and in particular to the rise of anti-Semitism during COVID? It's is a very unfortunate sidebar that we have to deal with.

In a previous Parliament, this committee tabled a report called “Taking Action to End Online Hate”, which I don't believe the government ever officially responded to. That report called for reinstating section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which would allow people to file complaints about online hate with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

I wonder if the minister has a response to that specific part of the justice committee's recommendation.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Yes, I do.

Arif Virani, who's with us, is part of that response. It was in my mandate letter to look at that, so there was, in effect, a government response during the election as part of our platform and then during my mandate letter. It's important to me, but I can't do everything, so I have in turn given that to Parliamentary Secretary Virani as part of his mandate. I know that he is looking at it very carefully.

In addition to section 13 revisions within our shop, he's working very closely with Minister Steven Guilbeault in Canadian Heritage and Minister Navdeep Bains to look at a wider response to online hate as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you so much, Minister Lametti. Thank you, Mr. Garrison.

Now we're moving to Madam Findlay for five minutes, please.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, minister, for being here with us today.

It is much earlier in B.C., as you can imagine, but I'm glad to see you just the same.

I have some questions regarding commissions and tribunals and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. I noted that in the 2020-21 departmental plan for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, there's a note that the commission will “continue to advocate for improved access to human rights justice by...raising awareness and understanding of the barriers to equality and access to justice that individuals in vulnerable circumstances are facing”.

My question, Minister, is this: How much of the $32-million main estimate for 2020-21 will be spent on raising awareness and understanding of the barriers to equality and access to justice? What are some concrete examples of such programs?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

As a high-level response, I would say that we have a number of different institutions across government and a number of different programs that focus on access to justice. Legal aid is one of the concrete examples that tries to reduce barriers to justice for a variety of different people across Canada, and I think it's probably fair to say that in my view, it's the primary example.

There are other things that I have mentioned, such as increasing programming on awareness of sexual harassment, since sexual harassment can act as a barrier to justice.

For more specific questions with respect to the tribunal, I'm going to turn to my administrative colleagues here.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

While they're getting organized, I note there is $6,842,569 set to be spent on engagement and advocacy in the 2020-21 estimates.

[Nathalie Drouin, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada, Department of Justice]

Madam Chair, we don't have the breakdown of the budget of the Human Rights Commission here, but we can undertake to respond to the MP on that specific question.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you. I'd appreciate that.

Minister, the main estimates for the commission say it's going to cost $9 million more in the 2020-21 estimates than in 2019-20. For the commission itself, it's $32 million in 2020-21 versus $23 million in 2019-20.

I'm wondering what exactly has led to that 28% increase. How will those additional funds be spent?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Again, I believe Bill Kroll will have to delve into the actual reports of the commission, but we will undertake to get that information to you.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you. I'd appreciate that as well.

Minister, perhaps you could walk us through the number of complaints and inquiries received by the commission, year over year. Are we seeing fewer cases filed during the pandemic or not? How does the total number of cases impact planned spending?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Again, that's a similar question. I would have to sit down with the officials from the Canadian Human Rights Commission to go through that and get you a more detailed breakdown, but we can undertake to do that.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Okay. Then maybe in that vein, I'll ask my other questions, because there may be the same response.

What are the Canadian Human Rights Commission's fixed versus variable costs? How will the pandemic affect this spending, and how has it affected that spending? Also, how are the funds allocated among the various prohibited grounds of discrimination? In other words, what are we seeing as the—perhaps you would call it—“theme” of cases coming forward to the commission? What is the commission actively dealing with?

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Right—

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Excuse me, Mr. Minister.

Ms. Findlay, it's my understanding that the minister may not be able to answer questions specific to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, but I'll leave it to the minister for his discretion if he's able to do so.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Once again, I think that was going to be the subject matter of the supplementary estimates visit from the Canadian Human Rights Commission. I'm not in a position right now to be able to answer those questions. It would be better to pose those questions directly to the administrators of the CHRC.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Would the same be true for the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal? I served on that tribunal for five years, so I'm quite interested in the planned expenditures of the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada.

[David Lametti, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

That is correct.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Okay.

Madam Chair, maybe you can help me here. I had two questions on that. Do I give them to you so that we can get those responses?