That is the case.
Evidence of meeting #58 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was training.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #58 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was training.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director and Senior General Counsel, Canadian Judicial Council
That is the case.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
—there wouldn't be this legislation going forward.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu
I'm sorry, that's your time.
We're going to Ms. Ludwig, for five minutes.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
Thank you.
Justice Kent, I'd like to carry on with that. If we were to include intersectionality, would it just be “intersectionality” as a term, as a reference, without a list?
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
I'm hesitating, because I'm not a legislative draftsperson. But I guess, in my parlance, understanding some of the causes and effects of gender-based violence.... The causes are poverty, race, and mental illness, and the affects are poverty and mental illness. It's so important that they're thought of together. I'm sorry, I'm stumbling because I'm not a legislative draftsman, but I acknowledge that they're certainly necessary to think of together.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
Okay. Thank you.
I'm going to ask another quick question, and then I'm going to share my time with Ms. Damoff.
Just following up on Ms. Vecchio's concern about the general public and the judicial system, if 95% of cases are heard before provincial judges, are we actually addressing that concern with this bill?
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director and Senior General Counsel, Canadian Judicial Council
I think it's fair to say, and I've said it before, that there are gaps. The council recognized that there are gaps in judicial education. We could always do better. I would not want to use the words “problems” and “grave” and “consistent” and “we're in trouble”. I think that is a mischaracterization of the reality. The cases are few and far between in which there have been problems. There are sometimes difficulties. There are gaps. We can do better.
But I was going to say, in terms of public confidence, that every decision a judge makes in this country is transparent, is public. That fosters public confidence, as revealed repeatedly in polling. These decisions are subject to appeal. When an error is made, it is reversed. So the confidence of the public in the system cannot be looked at through the lens of one or two or three cases. We want to continue to polish the curriculum and to work with our partners to make sure there is the best possible training available, and, at the risk of repeating myself, we want to have a comprehensive approach to judicial education. It's not just about one narrow area that could be subject to interpretation.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Thank you very much.
I actually want to concentrate on that a little bit as well, in terms of the provincial court judges. Who trains them?
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
They are allowed to come to our national courses for a nominal fee, because we know, depending on the province, that they have limited funds. The largest provincial trial court, the Ontario Court of Justice, has an MOU with us, so we do train them.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
Yes, sorry, a memorandum of understanding. So NJI does train them. They've been one of the most innovative courts in the country, by the way, in terms of training.
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
Alberta court judges get funds, and they have a couple of seminars every year which they organize themselves.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
So Justice Camp got training, not from with us, but in Alberta before he was appointed, I would assume.
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
I actually can't say. I don't know specifically about any judge, actually.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Okay. I think we're blurring the line a little bit with comments that have been made about provincial court judges with regard to what this bill will address, which will be training for federal court judges.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
So when we blur those lines, if Justice Camp were appointed today, he would actually go to the new justice school you've just started, as opposed to how it was when he was appointed by the previous government, after he made those comments and then sat on the Federal Court. Is that accurate?
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
Well, he was appointed as a provincial judge. He was then appointed as a federal judge. I don't know any of the particulars of his training. But now with the CJC's policy, it would be a mandatory requirement for him to go to the new federal judges school on his appointment as a federal judge.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Right, but we are blurring those lines. In Nova Scotia recently there was a case about whether or not someone who was drunk could give consent. Again, that was in a provincial court, not in a federal court.
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, National Judicial Institute
That is my understanding of that case.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
In 15 seconds, could I change the mood a little? Come From Away, which has a strong gender lens, with the first female American Airlines pilot, has just been nominated for seven Tony Awards. It's Canadian.