Thank you, Madam Chair.
Let me echo Mr. Moore's opening remarks about the panel. I really appreciate this.
This issue is also near and dear to my heart. I practised before the courts in Ontario for over 20 years before I went into politics. Six minutes of time here isn't enough, frankly. Justice MacDonald, it's nice to see you again.
We're talking about COVID issues. From my perspective, the challenges during COVID have been or are being addressed. The real issue is what the takeaways are from all of that, and what improvements we can make to the judicial system, the court system and the administration of the courts going forward.
I was very pleased to hear from Mr. Berkes and Justice Lynch and others that going back to in-person trials is a necessity, because I agree. Much of what takes place in legal proceedings are assessments made by judges and juries. You can't see if anybody is in the room with me right now. You can't see if somebody is holding up a sign saying, “That's a bad answer” or “That's a good question”. The solemnity of the court room is bang on. I think it applies equally to other steps in legal proceedings too, like mediations, pretrials, discoveries and civil proceedings. Thank you, Justice Lynch, for mentioning the civil process. It gets overshadowed by the criminal process time and time again in the civil areas where I practise.
This is a very long-winded way of asking whether thought has been given to criteria on when video trials and appeals can be used in place of in-person proceedings. That question is for anybody. I would think we could start with some of the judges on the panel.