Thank you for your question.
We are not aware of the positions taken by other law societies in Canada, but we have the same objective as the committee when it comes to Bill S‑4: to improve the justice system and adopt the positive lessons learned from the pandemic. As you said, there has been an ongoing effort to modernize the courts for several years now. It continued and accelerated during the pandemic because of public health requirements, for example, when hearings in person could not take place.
I would reiterate that we are not opposed to continuing that effort, but the bill provides for certain tools used during the pandemic to be implemented permanently for the future.
What the Barreau du Québec is proposing is that we step back a little and assess the effectiveness of these measures. Have they shown that they allowed for the procedural guarantees and rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be respected? That is the reason we are here today.
We agree on the objective of the bill, in large part, but we still want to point out certain problems.
You said that it would remain an option. That's true: the judge must decide it, with the consent of the parties. However, the judge must justify the denial, if that is the case. There therefore seems to be an opening for video appearances to become the norm and not the exception. We wanted to draw your attention to that as well.