Yes.
This is a proposal to add a right to legal aid such that if it's not available provincially, the Attorney General would have to provide it in the case of investigative hearings. The reason is that we're talking about witnesses for whom there may be absolutely no suspicion of guilt or anything of that sort. They're being hauled into a process within the criminal context that involves a lot of pain, suffering, and jeopardy.
We think it's incumbent upon the state to actually be paying for the legal services. If that's what they want to do, haul citizens in, it should not be something that citizens should have to pay for. The provision also contains the right to counsel, so the idea of the right to counsel is important, and yet it's not important enough, in the wording of this, to make sure that somebody who can't afford it actually has counsel.
The reason for this is that we think the right to counsel is important—it's there—but on an equality basis this is even more important. Plus, we really feel that anybody who's not actually under suspicion and is brought in for an investigative hearing really should not have to pay the costs of their legal representation.