With respect to your preamble, Mr. Lawton, my own view is that we're very lucky to be in Canada, where the powers and constraints on those powers are actually outlined in the Constitution itself. We can take our lessons not from saying there is one arbiter in one circumstance who has the final say and another in a different one. There's a constitutional framework that spells it out with a high degree of certainty. On occasion, there may be reasonable people who disagree.
To be clear, on this appointment, there was not a single legal issue or perspective that determined or contributed to the selection of Chief Justice Joyal. To be clear, what is far more important to me than any particular opinion they may issue is whether they have character and integrity and an understanding of how the courts can offer public services to Canadians. I think it would be very dangerous for a political actor to be seeking a judge who would make a decision in a given instance, when in fact we're dealing with people who have many years of service who will be dealing with issues to cover a range of different subjects that may possibly be beyond our imagination today. We are picking for character, for integrity and for a deep understanding of the law and the country in which the courts sit.