Mr. Speaker, I thank my Liberal colleague and former president of the Quebec bar for his question.
Actually, I do not think political action or having been a member of a political party should disqualify anybody from becoming a judge.
I tried a little test. I called the Quebec section of the Liberal Party of Canada to ask how many members they had. After a short discussion, I was told 70,000 to 80,000. So this is 70,000 to 80,000 members out of a population of about 7 million. This is not a big percentage.
When we look at the figures provided by the Montreal Gazette , hardly a sovereignist mouthpiece--I do not think they are big fans of the Bloc, the Parti Québécois, or sovereignty--we see that 60% of those who have been appointed as judges made contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada. If we consider only lawyers in private practice, the percentage is 72.4%. There is certainly at least an appearance of politicization.
I think there is more than the appearance of a problem. The problem is real, if you consider that three lawyers out of four who were in private practice and have been named federal judges contributed to the Liberal Party of Canada. Therefore, there is a problem with politicization, which should be eliminated from the whole process of appointing judges, for the greater good of all Quebeckers and Canadians