Information & Ethics committee  It's too granular, because it allows one to tie expense levels to individual judges.

Information & Ethics committee  Some judges happen to sit on national courts. National courts are very important to our country—

Information & Ethics committee  Exactly. The judge may have had a three-month trial in one of the most expensive cities in the country, and that would be reflected in his expenses.

Information & Ethics committee  I see no value and only serious downsides in the regime as conceived in this bill. However, as I mentioned in answer to Mr. Rankin's last question, I absolutely support and acknowledge the transparency objective of this bill. That can be achieved by disclosing information on a pe

Information & Ethics committee  It would be on an average per-judge basis, exactly. It will be an average, but per court, per expense. It's pretty granular, but at least it will not single out individual judges. I think the reason behind the level of the expense will flow from the nature of the expense.

Information & Ethics committee  Precisely, sir, precisely. The problem here is the proposal to tie the individual expenses to named judges.

Information & Ethics committee  Judges tend to stay in the same hotel. Judges, like anybody, have patterns of behaviour. Judges usually do not identify themselves as judges when they travel, for the security reasons that you can imagine, so that is a concern—

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. In my opening remarks, I acknowledged that one way of pursuing the transparency objective of the act is to have unattributed expense information made public by the commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Let me answer your question. You're asking me to give you examples of how judicial independence is engaged by the requirement to publish expenses. The example I'll give you is travelling expenses.

Information & Ethics committee  The example I was going to give you is travelling expenses. Judicial independence has three core characteristics: security of tenure, financial security, and administrative independence. Administrative independence has been held to extend to assignment decisions by chief justices

Information & Ethics committee  In response to your first question, the work of judges involves issues of criminal conviction and sentencing fraught with emotion, such as custody of children, disputes over wills and estates, and bankruptcy matters, to give a few examples. As I stated in my opening remarks, judg

Information & Ethics committee  I just need to finish my answer. —whose very existence is to stand as a buffer between the government and the judiciary. The third reason, a very important reason, that judges are not in a situation comparable to elected officials is that judges may not publicly defend themselv

Information & Ethics committee  I do not have that information, but I know there are expense claims that are rejected by the commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Sir, with respect, I disagree with your premise. It is not the case that the Canadian public is in the dark as to judicial expenses. I mentioned in my opening remarks that all reimbursable expenses must fall within one of the five allowances that are set out in the Judges Act. It

Information & Ethics committee  The fact, and that's an important point for members of the committee, that judicial independence is engaged by the publication regime set out in that bill is acknowledged by the bill itself. The bill itself contains an exception if the publication can undermine judicial independe