Thank you for the question.
In speaking with attorneys general across the country, I have heard them express a willingness to implement some of those recommendations—some more than others—but they are also expressing the need for a federal investment going back to that report.
COVID-19 obviously has put downward pressure on the provinces like no other time in our history, so given that jury duty is vested in the Criminal Code and is a federal mandate administered provincially by the provinces, there is a need for a federal role at this time in investing in improvements to jury duty.
As I said, raising jury duty pay to $120 per day, while it's a provincial responsibility, can be shared with the federal government through transfer payments, and we're not talking about an investment that is going to break the back of any government. In fact, it's going to improve the lives of jurors and it's going to open the opportunity for racialized Canadians, those who work in the gig economy and those who are under-represented in the justice system to participate in jury duty simply by being able to afford it. I have heard from so many Canadians who have said, “I would love to serve on a jury; I simply can't afford it” and “My employer will not allow me to do it.”
If we are talking about combatting systemic racism in access to justice, simply raising jury duty pay allows us that opportunity to suddenly change the diversity of a jury simply by bringing in people who would not have been able to do it before.