No, I don't have any common definitions to suggest. I will, however, point out that we had a literature review that was funded by Justice Canada. It was the beginning of a large access to justice research project that the association has now taken over. One of the aims of that project was to define access to justice for our community.
We're saying in our presentation today and in our brief that it's really hard for us to come together and talk about access to justice when there isn't a common definition on access to justice. Everything I've read says, “There is no common agreement on this term, but this is what I think it is.” The Canadian Bar Association thinks it means this; Justice Canada thinks it's that; the FAJEF might think it's this; we might think it's something else.
How do you develop public policy around access to justice when you don't even know what you're talking about? All we're suggesting is that it would be nice if the stakeholders could come up with a common understanding of what the term means so we have a common lexicon on which to advance public policy.