Evidence of meeting #69 for Justice and Human Rights in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vacancies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
I name judges across the country, Mr. Fortin. You need to take the time to do things right.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Mr. Minister, you can't take too much time to appoint a judge because, in the meantime, offenders are released.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Mr. Minister, it's been six months and there are still three vacancies.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
Mr. Fortin, we need to appoint high-calibre judges and that's what we are doing.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Is there no high-calibre candidate on your currents lists worthy of filling those three positions in Quebec?
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
As I said, I've added over 115 positions since I became minister or since our government was elected. We need to name more judges. I'll add that many judges would like to become supernumerary judges. In the case of Quebec, it's not—
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Fine, but there are officials who look after all of that.
You are the one who is responsible for the administration of the system and you are telling me there are three vacancies.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
Let me finish. A supernumerary judge does not completely leave his position. That is reflected on the list of positions—
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Mr. Minister, my time is running out.
You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. There are three vacancies.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
They still sit 50% of the time, and there are several of them in Quebec.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
We are in the process of assessing appointments across Canada.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Since December, what action you taken to fill those three positions?
Bloc
Liberal
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
What have you done since December to fill those three vacancies?
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
We are holding ongoing consultations on the candidates.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Randeep Sarai
Thank you, Monsieur Fortin.
As you noticed, the bells are ringing. They are 30-minute bells. Can I get unanimous consent to go until about 10 minutes before, if that's okay?
We have unanimous consent to go until 4:35 p.m. I think that's about right. As soon as I see the clock at 10 minutes, we'll suspend. That should get us through this next round as well.
Mr. Garrison, it's over to you for six minutes.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
I was put in the awkward position of voting over asking questions, so thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to come back to the question of judges and legal aid in a minute, but I want to start, given that we're at the beginning of Pride season in Canada, by asking about the rising crimes of hate and violence directed against the 2SLGBTQI+ community in this country.
We know that there are data faults in correcting data, particularly in data revolving around hate crimes directed against transgender and non-binary Canadians, who are being lumped in together with other categories.
What initiatives is your government taking, either in your department or others, to oppose this rising tide of hate and violence?