Mr. Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice for his kind remarks.
On the first point about bilingual judges, yes, that is something to which this party is committed. I understand that the Liberal Party is also committed to functional bilingualism.
Yes, indeed, 13 of the last 15 judges, depending on how one defines it, I suppose, have been able to call themselves that. There is some doubt, from the discussions in the justice committee over the summer, whether that means that the applicant is capable of speaking both official languages as opposed to simply understanding, but that is something that needs to be worked out over time. I understand that.
As to the second point about conventions, I could not agree more with the fact that a convention is a tradition or a custom. It is very hard for me to listen to the Conservatives somehow suggest that the Nadon case, which of course reflected the fiasco they created, where the court had to address the fact that three of the nine justices must come from the province of Quebec as a statutory and indeed constitutional requirement, was somehow the same as the fact that we have to have x number of judges from western Canada, three from Ontario, and the like. It seems to me that they are creating apples and oranges when they do that.
The convention has been, as all conventions are, interpreted in a flexible manner, and history shows that. The example I gave of the appointment of Madam Justice Bertha Wilson is a great illustration of the fact that there has never been an automatic lockstep requirement that somehow it is this region's turn and therefore right now we have to appoint that person. We waited four years in that example. We had another justice to fill that slot and create the diverse regional representation we required. I think that is a telling example of how the convention has applied over our history.