Irwin Cotler on Questions on the Order Paper

With regard to government legislation introduced in the 40th and 41st Parliaments in either the House or the Senate and the Department of Justice Act requirement in s. 4.1 that government legislation comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: (a) on what date was the legislation submitted for review; (b) which individuals conducted the review; (c) what are the job titles of the persons who performed the review; (d) what are the qualifications of the persons who performed the review; (e) is membership in good standing of a law society a requirement for performing the review; (f) were all those who participated in the review members in good standing of a law society at the time and, if so, which law societies were represented and how many years of practice did each individual involved have; (g) on what dates was the review conducted; (h) what is the process for such a review; (i) what doctrinal and jurisprudential sources were used to conduct the reviews, specifying (i) Canadian doctrinal sources, (ii) international doctrinal sources, (iii) domestic jurisprudential decisions, (iv) international jurisprudential decisions, (v) other legal or academic sources consulted; (j) what databases are accessed to conduct the review; (k) does any external consultation occur for the purposes of conducting such a review and, if so, what kinds of individuals or groups can be consulted; (l) how many drafts exist for each review report; (m) when were the memos in this regard presented to the Minister of Justice or any other member of the cabinet; (n) what was the cost of preparing each of these reports; (o) what is the budget allotted for the preparation of each report; (p) for each year since 2006, how much money has been allotted for undertaking each review; (q) for each year since 2006, how much money has been used to conduct each review; (r) how will the positions involved in the review process be affected by budget cuts at the department; (s) to whom will this work fall if these positions are cut; (t) what measures are in place to ensure the quality of the reviews; (u) what measures are in place to ensure the accuracy of the reviews; (v) are there any circumstances in which the government would make the content of such reviews public and, if so, what are they; and (w) has the government assessed litigation risk with respect to non-compliance with s. 4.1(1) and, if so, when, and who conducted the assessment?