Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  I agree. It's the provincial jury acts that dictate, to a large extent, how big the array is. You can pay jurors more because it's inconvenient. When it comes to indigenous people, we have to recognize a fundamental.... They have a mistrust of the criminal justice system for obv

Justice committee  As it stands, because of a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada called Mills, provincial court judges sitting as preliminary inquiry judges do not have the same jurisdiction they would have if they were trial judges. You have the same individual, with the same level of exper

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Well, you know, I wasn't there, but I've read a lot about it. As far as I know, I've seen no data on who was stood aside, who was indigenous. I've heard no evidence about how many indigenous people were on the array, which is the panel of people from which the jury is selected. A

Justice committee  I agree with you, and as best as I know, New Zealand is the one jurisdiction that has that.

Justice committee  They have that ability to say to everybody, “This jury is just not representative. You have been misusing your peremptory challenges. We're going to get rid of the jury, and we're going to start again."

Justice committee  I'm cautious about the discovery process because, from having sat in many different courtrooms on many different days, there's something about the formality of the process, the taking of the oath and the judge being present, that really instills in people's minds that they have t

Justice committee  I would very much agree with that. I think they are used by defence counsel only when necessary. I think you made a very important point: Nobody wants to develop a reputation for wasting court time. It's so much of an issue now. Court time is so precious. Everybody talks about it

Justice committee  I'll just echo what my friend has said. Abusing the preliminary inquiry, has it ever happened? Of course it has—let's be honest—but is it used routinely to cause delay? No, because judges have the powers now, with the focus hearing, to require counsel to come before them and to a

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. This is my third appearance before this committee, and it's an honour to be back again today. My colleague and I are here from the left coast and the right coast—I'll leave it to you to decide which is the le