Well, I would say very briefly that as a member of the group that often didn't have shoulders that were seen as very tappable and was under-represented.... When I was minister of justice, 25% of my judicial appointments were women, but the percentage of people at the bar who were tenure-called who were women was only 12.5%, so I actually appointed women disproportionately to begin to create a body of people who could mature and become candidates for higher appointments.
However, I think what we're seeing with this approach, and again, there are many different ways to do this.... What I see in the approach that the Prime Minister asked me to chair is a reflection of what has already been taking place in the provinces.
When I was justice minister, people could apply to be considered for the court. There were local judicial review committees that consisted of people from the legal profession, from law enforcement, from a variety of different groups appointed by the province and appointed by the federal government to try to make them not parti pris to any one particular group but to vet candidates and determine whether they were fit to serve. Then the minister [Technical difficulty—Editor].
There was a time in this country when they didn't have any of that, when it really was much more a question of, perhaps, patronage. It didn't mean that a lot of good people were not appointed, but a lot of good people were also excluded from consideration. I see this, in many ways, as a reflection of what goes on with the appointments of the superior courts in all of the provinces and an opportunity for people who are knowledgeable about the law.
It's quite a lot of work. If a committee took this on, it would have an awful lot of work to do, because it takes a long time to review all of the applications, etc., but it is the idea of taking it out of the partisan process.
I don't see any reason why there can't be other ways of doing it, but I think that what this process does is say to people in the legal profession that anyone may be asked to be considered. That's pretty new, because there was a time when many people thought that to be asked to be considered would be considered laughable. You know, “Who are you? Who do you think you are?” Well, if you are a person who meets these criteria, you bloody well have a right to be considered, and you know what? We will give you the fairest review possible, and we will work very hard to try to make sure that every person has a chance to get a fair hearing and a fair evaluation, recognizing that we can't send all of the names to the Prime Minister and that there will be a separating out of people.
I see the evolution as one that is really consistent with the appointments to the courts, the superior courts in the provinces, and I think that changing the process to make sure there's more time for people to apply—we've done that, reaching out broadly to beat the bushes for people to think of themselves as possible candidates in this—is appropriate.
I'm not setting the terms of reference for the committee, but I believe that the Prime Minister, the minister and others would be very open to other suggestions to make it [Technical difficulty—Editor]. There's also the question that it is the Prime Minister's prerogative to make these appointments, and I think, to the extent that prime ministers are willing to not necessarily fetter their discretion—I don't think they should do that—but open up the process and ask others' advice.... I mean, they've always asked others' advice, but to have people really seriously focused on candidates, many of whom are self-selected and turn out to be terrific is, I think, a step forward.
You're thoughtful, and I think that many of you may have thoughtful approaches for how to make it better, but as with the superior court appointments in the provinces, I think that taking that out of a purely partisan forum gives it credibility and makes it more open to people who are not part of any kind of partisan power group.