Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much to all of you for being here.
Ms. McTeer, to you and your committee, thank you for your work.
To Justice Martin, I appreciate her service to the court. I had the pleasure of being on the committee and asking her questions when she was appointed. I am a McGill grad, of course.
I just want to say how much I appreciate this process, and I appreciate as well the lack of politicization that goes into appointments in Canada. For example, in the United States, we all know that in both 2016 and 2020, President Trump said he would only appoint justices from a list selected by The Federalist Society. That is true politicization of the court.
Here we have an independent process where a selection committee appointed by various different distinguished bodies across the country is able to ascertain, of anyone who wishes to apply, whether or not they merit being submitted to the Minister of Justice and then to the Prime Minister on a short list. I think that is an incredibly good process.
Ms. McTeer, in terms of the process itself, in the past, if I remember correctly, there have been three or four candidates that have been submitted to the Minister of Justice by the committee. Can you explain to us why there were two this time versus the normal three or four?