Justice committee  I was involved in a trial back in 1996 and I was sitting with a number of the lawyers after the trial was over. One of the lawyers talked about a previous year in which he had done 12 homicide trials in a calendar year. It simply doesn't happen anymore because of the complexity of the voir dire in each case, the charter challenges, and the admissibility of evidence.

Justice committee  My more professional opinion is both.

Justice committee  As a group, there are 12 jurors, 14 jurors, who have been through a process. In the same way that we do debriefs with first responders who have been involved in a critical incident, there are appropriate ways of doing that, and some criticisms of some inappropriate ways of doing that.

Justice committee  As Mr. Kyllo commented, I think we look at the occupational stress injury clinics that most provinces have available to them. Those are going to have a number of professionals who are trained in trauma. Again, 20 jurors, in the two years that Alberta's had its program.... I would certainly hope that we're able to provide that number of resources.

Justice committee  I'll give Mr. Kyllo the chance to answer on the debrief program.

Justice committee  Some of the concerns raised by jurors who have sought me out had to do with their not feeling a sense of connection with the therapist provided through the juror support program. I'm a forensic psychologist. The last line of my bio for any presentation reads, “Dr. Baillie appears frequently before the courts, usually as an expert and only occasionally as an accused.”

Justice committee  I believe there is information provided to jurors in other provinces, but I don't know the depth of that information.

Justice committee  I don't, because I don't know what their utilization is, and there have also been different dates. Saskatchewan introduced their program last week. Again, it's a four-session, two-month model. I don't imagine anybody has taken advantage of it just yet, but in other provinces, I'm sure those numbers would be available through the mechanisms they have set up, such as an employee assistance program.

Justice committee  The other critical piece I hope I alluded to was the resiliency component of the things jurors need to do to be looking after themselves during the process. The finances and the mechanics are the things that allow jurors to have some sense of control over what's going on in their lives.

Justice committee  There is a brochure that's provided. I think it could be more comprehensive. I think the program generally could be more comprehensive.

Justice committee  Certainly.

Justice committee  Yes. I think the more specific we can make the information without biasing the process, the more helpful it's likely to be.

Justice committee  It's Garland.

Justice committee  I know the defence counsel in that case quite well. In my view—and I don't mean to prejudge the Court of Appeal—what Justice Gates was doing was looking out for the mental health of the jurors relative to the evidence they were hearing about the victims. That evidence didn't necessarily point to this accused as being the perpetrator.

Justice committee  Right.