Justice committee  Happily, in cases of discrimination, Canada has a process that is less formal than the courts, which gives individuals the opportunity to come forward when they're extremely vulnerable. And of course section 13 cases are considered to be discriminatory.

Justice committee  Our processes are informal, and they're paper-based, with some interviews, which are usually done by telephone. No individual needs to retain counsel during the screening process at the commission level.

Justice committee  I'd be pleased to do that.

Justice committee  Currently there is no provision to provide for costs to either party. We have recommended in our special report that in exceptional circumstances the tribunal be able to award costs at the tribunal level.

Justice committee  We are public servants who are working to do our job, and I'd like to put this into perspective. The processing of complaints is less than 50% of what we do. The Canadian Human Rights Commission is also promoting the equality of Canadians, with a very broad mandate. With a lot of

Justice committee  Recent law has determined that the commission as an organization cannot bring a libel action or a defamation action. With respect, it's expecting a lot of individuals who are doing their everyday work as dedicated public servants to take on for themselves a civil liability action

Justice committee  Entirely on their own. Of course we have tried to put the record straight, and we do welcome this forum as our opportunity to have the important debate that needs to be held, and that is, how do we balance two freedoms, if you will, or two rights? These two rights are the freedo

Justice committee  There are more than 150 countries that have signed and ratified the various international conventions that require freedom from hate or hateful expression, or its equivalent, and many of these countries, of course, have created legislation accordingly. Canada is one of the very f

Justice committee  We have conducted detailed investigations internally, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Privacy Commission also did. These two latter bodies have found that the allegations were unsubstantiated and they have closed their files. I will be filing a book of documents wit

Justice committee  As I was mentioning, we play a fundamental role in providing access to the administration of justice for individuals, and in order to do that, of course, we must be part of very clear processes that are fair, equitable, and transparent. A key point I'd like to make with you is t

Justice committee  At all times, we process cases based on our policies and procedures, and of course our responsibilities. These relate to our engagement as an administrative agency within the whole quasi-judicial framework. We do not have many open cases. I believe right now we have one case that

Justice committee  In June of this year we filed our special report to Parliament. All members have been given copies of this report, and we did bring some additional copies. In the report we do analyze, of course, Professor Moon's recommendations and we also went through another process where we h

Justice committee  The commission has applied for judicial review of the decision based on two grounds. Part of the tribunal's finding was based on the fact that cases related to section 13 are not as often subject to settlement by mediation as other types of cases. This would be understandable. Th

Justice committee  The case of Warman v. Lemire was decided by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The tribunal is an independent tribunal. The Canadian Human Rights Commission is a screening body. In the part of our work in which we process complaints, we are a screening body. We either dismiss th

Justice committee  Yes.