Justice committee  Members, thank you for this opportunity to appear before the committee this afternoon to talk about an important subject, mental health support for Canadian jurors. At Morneau Shepell, we're proud of the work we've done with our provincial partners and pleased to see this commit

Justice committee  Yes, you are correct. We went through a formal RFP, a request for proposal process, and we were awarded the contract.

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, I'd like to respond to that question. We do offer and provide statistical reporting back to the Alberta Justice team that is managing the program. A part of our counselling programs is always to look at asking the client to complete a satisfaction survey to ensure the

Justice committee  Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will—

Justice committee  We provide a statistical report on a semi-annual and annual basis that outlines the number of individuals who have accessed the program. I would be happy to take your request away and work with Ms. Jobagy to look at providing those statistics, as well as the satisfaction survey,

Justice committee  The program parameters target four sessions of counselling. Typically, the period of time in which the jury member can access support is up to two months following the conclusion of the trial. However, should a particular individual require additional sessions of support, with ap

Justice committee  As far as I know, we haven't had individuals who have accessed or requested access for support after six months, but I believe that the agreement we have with the Alberta Justice team would be to look at those individuals, consult, and present the request for additional support,

Justice committee  Working with the Alberta Justice team, we were looking for literature or research that gave a guideline on the amount of support that would be needed for someone who had been part of a jury trial. That data just didn't exist. Some individuals may be coping better following a tria

Justice committee  At this point in time, when we review the statistics, on average it's been three sessions of counselling per individual juror.

Justice committee  I truly am very proud of the work that has been done to recognize the impact of trials on jury members. It appears this is not exclusive to Alberta, so perhaps we should be looking at a broader scope of supports for all citizens. Speaking on my own behalf, it seems to make sens

Justice committee  I'd like to add a comment to Mr. MacGregor's question. I think we now have a greater appreciation and understanding of mental health issues in general. We now recognize that just because some people—say, first responders—have chosen to work in certain fields does not mean they ar

Justice committee  Sure.

Justice committee  I'd be happy to, and thank you for your question, Mr. Fraser. One of the things we recognized when we looked at the counselling network is that some people might be in more rural areas, so it would not be feasible for them to drive an hour for counselling. Also, in Alberta, wint

Justice committee  They can ask for additional sessions, but it also could be the counsellor who suggests that an individual really needs more support. We have an agreement with the Alberta Justice team that we can provide additional counselling sessions. We can go from four sessions up to six sess

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, I'd like to answer that question for Mr. Fraser. We have discussed those situations of a jury member needing to leave the trial for whatever reason and not participating through the full trial, and yes, we would consider them to still be eligible for support. Those mi