Justice committee  Again, I think they're going to land on every juror very differently. For me as the forewoman, it was processing the material and the evidence I was seeing. It was processing it and providing space in my own mind to come up with my own decision, because that's still my own individual decision, not that of the other jurors around the room.

Justice committee  No, I would say quite the opposite. I didn't have space to process the decision that I needed to make, because I was worried about the people in the room. I don't know that it's just being a forewoman, maybe that's being a mother, taking care of the needs of people in the room, and knowing, and listening.

Justice committee  I said in my recommendations that I believe that jurors should have an informed choice to serve, and I said that because I genuinely think that in life there are different times when you can take on more, and then there are times when things are already sort of at the end and you can't take on any more.

Justice committee  I didn't know what B.C. had to offer until after I served on jury duty, and nothing ultimately was offered to us. However, I think Alberta has a structure in place that may be of assistance. When I think of the cost, to some degree I still narrow in on that peer-to-peer...to be able to have a conversation and talk about it.

Justice committee  Yes, I certainly agree with some of the things Daniel had to say about the costs down the line of having just a quick intervention, of going into depression, and the impacts on your family, your career, and your employment. I'll backtrack just a bit. In my career in the public service, I was in wildland firefighting.

Justice committee  That's a good question. I don't know. I guess part of the reason I'm here today is to tell my story and listen. I don't know if it's an oversight or somebody made an intentional decision to not provide these services to jurors. I genuinely think that it was probably an oversight.

Justice committee  I would agree. I think there's a need for a group discussion at some point. Even having the judge come in after we delivered our verdict was a healthy thing for us just to decompress. It was almost 11 o'clock on a Saturday night and we wanted to get home to our own beds and our families.

Justice committee  I think it's reasonable. There is a significant sense of loneliness as you are going through the process. I don't know if it makes a difference whether it's a day of deliberations or four days of deliberations. You are in the room for hours on end with these people, trying to come up with an answer or a verdict.

Justice committee  I think it absolutely would have helped me. Even in my sessions or with things that were happening, there was always a sense of the things I couldn't to. It wasn't even about the contributing factors that made me think guilty or not guilty. It was just the feelings or the emotions or the empathy that I just wanted to talk about.

Justice committee  I did not experience intimidation during it, but the sheriffs were with us everywhere. They walked us out to our vehicles or they would watch and oversee. They were always there. You could see the family of the accused or the victim's family walking to their cars. You're in shared...but I didn't take anything as intimidation.

Justice committee  Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for the invitation to share my experience of serving as a juror in Canada. I want to thank you for conducting this study. I truly believe it will improve the experience for jurors in the future. In June 2016, I served as forewoman in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.