This is to deal with what happens to grievances that are submitted by military judges. It is our firm belief that this aspect of the grievance system relates to the independence of military judges.
We just had a provision, in clause 5, saying that military judges can't submit grievances in matters related to their judicial duties. Then, in clause 6, they can submit grievances but the determination and consideration by the Chief of the Defence Staff interferes with their independence. Even though it's a non-judicial matter, it may have to do with vacation pay, with entitlement for leave, with something related to pay, and it could have an influence on the amount of money a military judge is to receive in terms of the result of a grievance. As was indicated to the committee by the grievance board chair, the vast majority of grievances that come before the board have to do with benefits, so there's likely a monetary consequence to this.
The idea of the amendment is to ensure the grievances committee has the final decision with respect to that. The amendment says the grievances shall be “considered and determined by the Grievances Committee”, which is the new name for it, by the way. “The committee's decision is final and binding and, except for judicial review under the Federal Courts Act, is not subject to appeal or review by any court.”
That provides a separate avenue of resolution of grievances by military judges. I would submit it's a factor that would or could be considered by a court in considering whether military judges are indeed independent. We've seen a couple of cases now where the courts have ruled that the independence of judges was compromised. This is one where there is also a danger of that kind of ruling from the courts, and we think this amendment would resolve that. There's no need for the Chief of the Defence Staff to hear this if we have a robust grievances committee that's able to determine these matters.