Status of Women committee  Certainly. Thank you. This motion is in relation to subsection 62.1(1) of the Judges Act, which encourages the CJC to report on certain seminars. Currently the bill would expand that report to include seminars on intimate partner violence and coercive control. My understanding

Status of Women committee  Certainly. Thank you, Shannon. As the member noted, this new clause that's being proposed to the bill would expand the undertaking that's currently found in section 3 of the Judges Act. At the moment, the undertaking in the Judges Act relates to seminars on sexual assault law an

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. I'm not able to provide information on what is included in current training for judges and what might be included in future training in terms of content. Judicial independence requires that judges control judicial education, including the content of

Status of Women committee  The Judges Act as amended by former Bill C-3 lists training on matters related to sexual assault law and social context as topics on which the CJC may establish seminars.

Status of Women committee  The only topics that are currently listed are sexual assault law and social context; however, the CJC is able to establish seminars on other topics.

Status of Women committee  At the moment, that provision encourages the CJC to provide a report to the Minister of Justice on seminars on sexual assault law training and on social context that have been offered in the previous year.

Status of Women committee  That's correct. The CJC would be encouraged to report on those seminars as well.

Status of Women committee  As my colleague mentioned, as department officials we're not able to offer opinions on potential amendments or suggest amendments to a bill. However, I will address your question in a different way. As you noted, the judiciary does have control over judicial education, including

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that note on judicial education. The principle of judicial independence requires that the judiciary control judicial education on a range of topics, and that would include training on coercive control and intimate partner violence. It will be up to the judiciary.

Status of Women committee  As you noted, judicial independence requires judicial training over education for judges. This includes both the content of judicial training and whether judges are required to attend training or which training judges take. That decision would be up to the judiciary as well.

Status of Women committee  Certainly. I think the two organizations that you're mentioning are the Canadian Judicial Council, the CJC, and then there's the National Judicial Institute, the NJI. The CJC is an organization that's made up of all of the chief justices across Canada. They're responsible for s

Status of Women committee  Yes, thank you. I'll take that question. Thank you for the question about what judges are learning or how the definition of coercive control is used in judicial education. The constitutional principle of judicial independence requires that the judiciary control judicial educatio

Status of Women committee  As I mentioned, the NJI, which is the primary provider of judicial education, would be better placed to answer the question on what they offer currently to judges.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. Again, as I mentioned, the content of judicial education and what it would cover is a responsibility of the judiciary, in this case the Canadian Judicial Council and the National Judicial Institute. They would be better placed to answer questions abo