We're very pleased and honoured to be working with the Attorney General of British Columbia and the B.C. Supreme Court through funding from the Department of Justice on our juror support pilot project.
We are training B.C. sheriffs, who manage jurors on a day-to-day basis. We're training them on self-care, resiliency skills, the juror experience, the journey of the juror and identifying the stresses. Many people just don't know or understand the juror's experience. We're providing B.C. sheriffs with that training to support the jury in court and to provide subtle supports. This means that after a difficult day in the courtroom, the sheriff can provide some empathy and support so that the jury can come back the next day and continue that work.
It's not opinionating the jurors or intruding on their objectivity; it's providing them with empathy and support.
We're also developing a peer support pilot project. We're training former jurors who have lived experience and have been through the system and been through graphic trials to provide empathy and support to jurors as an alternative and complement to the post-trial support programs that are there now.
Our goal is to nationalize those two programs, in addition to some of the other work that we want to do. We hope that Canadian jury duty appreciation week will be a designated event in the calendar so that all Canadians will celebrate jury duty and thank jurors for their contribution.