Thank you, Madam Chair.
My comments on the amendment are pretty much the same as what I was going to say.
I wasn't going to speak again either, Mr. Van Popta, until I heard some of the comments from that side of the table. Being a lawyer, I feel compelled to respond and set the record straight.
As I said at the outset, this motion is politically charged. If I wasn't right before, I am now, because the amendment makes it clear that it's political. It can be interpreted no other way.
I'm going to address a number of points that my colleagues across the way have made. I think it was Mr. Caputo—or maybe it was Mr. Van Popta—who said it was remarkable that a judge goes public to speak about judicial appointments. There's really nothing remarkable about it at all. I attended the opening of the court ceremony in Toronto for many, many years, and there was a standard line in the speech of the chief justice. Even prior to 2015, because that's when I was going, it was about how there were x number of vacancies in the province of Ontario and how the government of the day needed to make sure those were filled. This is nothing more than judges reminding politicians of all stripes about the importance of making judicial appointments and about making sure they're current. There's nothing new under the sun about that. There's really nothing remarkable at all about that.
Mr. Brock talked about supernumerary judges. Yes, they provide six months' notice when they're going to go supernumerary, but something the general public might not understand is that when a judge goes supernumerary, he or she continues to serve as a Superior Court judge in that province but sitting for fewer weeks. It's about 50% of the time. If you do the math, if a number of people go supernumerary and those people are replaced, you actually have more judicial capacity than you had before.
He quoted the number as going from 100 to 79 currently, but that doesn't factor in the ongoing retirement. It suggests that only 21 appointments have been made, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. Then he quoted the article written by this civil litigator in Toronto—I was a civil litigator in Toronto—and then he went on to talk about the blame being put on the lack of courtrooms. Lawyers who practise in the Superior Court know that the only component of the system that falls on the federal government is the appointment of the judges. As for the lack of courtrooms, when you walk into a Superior Court courtroom in the province of Ontario, the person you're looking at up on the bench was put there by the federal government and paid by the federal government. Everything else—from the light bulbs, the desks and the staff to the number of courtrooms—is the responsibility of the provincial government, which has nothing to do with the reference to judicial vacancies; I'm sorry.
In fact, we all agree on one thing, which is the importance of making sure that judicial vacancies are filled and making sure that access is available to all parties, whether we're talking about criminal, civil or family court. After we were elected in 2015, we introduced legislation that would actually increase the complement of superior court judges, not decrease it. That creates greater access to the courts.
As for the Jordan decision, which keeps getting thrown around, I would remind people that it was based on a set of facts that started in 2009 and ended in 2015. When we use words like “negligence” when talking about appointing judges, how can that do anything but create fear and confusion in the eyes of the public? Using the Jordan decision as an example of anything to do with this current government is factually incorrect. I'm sorry. That was based on a decision, on facts and on the court system under the previous government, if you want to be clear on it. If you want to use it, let's make sure people understand.
One thing we do agree on, as Mr. Brock pointed out, is that the current Minister of Justice has done a very good job of making appointments and making them quickly. That's not going to change. We've seen evidence of that today.
My last point is this, subject to anything else I might hear today. With respect to the delay of Bill C-40, having this discussion right now is already delaying Bill C‑40 further, because had we not been dealing with this motion, I suspect that by 12:30 today, we would have been adjourning the meeting because the bill would have been passed.
Let's get on with it. Thank you.