Status of Women Committee on April 4th, 2017

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

You commented that you would like to see written rather than just oral presentations on what their judgment is going to be. One of the concerns is that that's going to delay cases and that the people involved already have enough work.

I recognize, and I think there are quite a few gaps among those being appointed, but why do you think the best thing to do is to have a written response rather than just an oral one?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Written decisions are of higher quality. That's the bottom line.

When a judge, like any person, has to write out their arguments, they do it in a more thoughtful way. The hope is that they'll use more thoughtful language, because a lot of times when we see these things happen, it's in oral decisions.

Another issue is that complainants want to have a record of the decision. We've heard from various advocacy groups who emphasize how important it is for complainants to have a copy of the decision. Currently if a judge gives a decision orally, a complainant leaves the courtroom with no record of what they've just been through. Obviously, with the traumatic nature of the proceedings, complainants want to be able to review that, especially after the fact, when a lot of times they can process it more easily. When they do want to have access to an oral decision, they have to jump through all kinds of hoops, and it's also costly to get a copy of the trial proceedings. That's just one issue.

It's also about increasing transparency. When a decision is written, it's much more accessible or available not just to complainants but also to researchers, advocates, and academics who are trying to do work in this area. Also, as I said earlier, on, sometimes the only reason we know these things are happening is that reporters in the courtroom heard it and wrote about it. Written decisions also ensure that decisions can be scrutinized by the public and the parties to the case. This is an area where we need more scrutiny. There is no doubt about it.

I think there are concerns about written decisions being more costly. My hope is that at least we will have more written decisions. If that is a huge cost burden, then I hope that oral decisions will at least be transcribed and be readily available, that you don't have to go through a FOIP system—freedom of information—and that you don't have to pay for it. I particularly hope that the complainant does not have to pay to get access to these records and decisions. There are ways in which I think we could make the system much more accessible and transparent.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

As you're indicating, I think a written decision will also ensure that the persons speaking will be much more thoughtful in their comments, especially to the victim, and to the accused as well. I think this also deals with the issue of the harsh words that may have been said in the past. Now that it would have to be on a piece of paper that could be distributed to every media source throughout the world, they're going to have to be much more accountable as well.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Yes, it's funny how that happens, but it does.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

I want to thank you, Ms. Ambrose, for bringing this bill forward.

As you've heard from the committee, when we brought our report forward on taking action against violence against women and young girls, we saw the need for better training from the start of the process to the end. We thank you for your time today.

At this point, we're going to go into a steering committee meeting. If I could ask members of the committee to remain seated for a minute or two after we suspend, I believe there are people at the back who want to take pictures of our wonderful committee.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all the members of the committee for all your hard work in this area.

I want to wish you all the luck when you have your witnesses here and thank you for considering this bill. I know it's not just important to me, but to a lot of women out there.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

The meeting is adjourned.