Justice committee  I call it domestic or family violence because we know how it affects the whole family. We do some training. It's a little complicated; we won't get into it here, because of the provincial jurisdiction of some of the legislation involved. Could we do more? Absolutely. It's importa

Justice committee  For federally appointed judges, the two weeks of training are mandatory. There is no follow-up and there are no exams, but it is mandatory for all the judges to attend. There is a lot of skills training. You ask if there are exams and I say no, but there's a lot of work in tables

Justice committee  All our training is with the sitting judges.

Justice committee  I spoke about our session in our “Judging in Your First Five Years” program, where we had Christa Big Canoe talk about the missing and murdered indigenous women. If you've ever watched her submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Barton case, where she talked about Cindy

Justice committee  I don't want to say we've covered all those bases absolutely up to now. For example, a videocast that we've just launched includes Nneka MacGregor, Deepa Mattoo and Fran Odette, all of whom are heading groups that work with vulnerable witnesses, whether indigenous, racialized wom

Justice committee  Absolutely. The course I talked about, called “Judging in Your First Five Years: Criminal Law”, was created in response—I won't say completely, but partially—to Bill C-337. It is now a mandatory course for newer appointed judges. That has changed as a result of the CJC policy and

Justice committee  I think the chair may differ—

Justice committee  Let me start by telling you about one of the obligations that I think the NJI has. The Supreme Court of Canada has made quite clear to judges in Canada that they must understand the context of the people in their courtroom. One of the most recent examples was the witness who want

Justice committee  The short answer is yes. As I said in my closing, judges are dedicated to ensuring that everybody is treated respectfully. When I was a.... I have only another second to go, so I won't go into my past, but I think without the legislation, yes, judges know that they have to treat

Justice committee  Any discussion about matters of sexual assault cases should ensure that victims who have been assaulted and wronged come forward, and that they are respected as they go through the process, from their first contact with the police right through to the courtroom. It's important th

Justice committee  First of all, let me thank all of you for allowing me this occasion to attend here and give you some information about the judicial education that we offer to Canadian judges. The National Judicial Institute, NJI, is a not-for-profit independent organization dedicated to develop

Justice committee  Thank you. My colleague, Mr. MacDonald, and I decided that our presentation will be somewhat intermingled between the two of us. I would invite Mr. MacDonald to begin.