Thank you, Madam Chair.
My question is for Ms. Campbell.
It's not every day that the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has the opportunity to welcome the chairperson of the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. It's a great honour for us, Ms. Campbell, to have you with us today.
We deal with many important issues in committee and in the House. However, there is one issue we're very concerned about. I began to address it earlier, and Mr. Cooper did as well. It's the issue of the appointment process.
As chairperson of the advisory board, with your experience, both political and legal, and considering the fact that you have, I am sure, excellent judgment, I'd like to know what you think about the issue of checking the political affiliations of judicial candidates.
I understood that Minister Lametti didn't do any checks in this case because he had already done them when he appointed Justice Jamal to the Ontario Court of Appeal. I understand that it would have helped in some ways. However, generally speaking, what do you think about that?
Do you think it's important to check political affiliations for all kinds of valid or invalid reasons? Is it important to do this before making appointments, or should this step of checking before appointing someone be completely eliminated?