Justice committee  Of course, let's start by recalling that everything—except reference cases—that ultimately comes before the Supreme Court of Canada starts out in a trial court. For the group of nine who are there, and others who are currently on the court who have had trial court experience, it'

Justice committee  I'm sure that the minister has comments, but if I may comment first, I believe that the public reputation of the Supreme Court of Canada and public confidence in it today are very high. The court itself has, by having public hearings in Winnipeg and then in Quebec City and by eng

Justice committee  I'll say that it was. There's a lot of prep work prior to being there around the table, in terms of interviews, her application and discussions that we have within our own advisory board, which itself represents a considerable amount of knowledge of the situation. We were able,

Justice committee  I might add that since the nomination was made public, The Guardian in the U.K. has had a report on this and noted that this was a first internationally. I'm not sure how many countries it compared this to, but Canada has a majority of women when compared with other courts intern

Justice committee  I wouldn't use the word “rushed”, but I recognize that a limited amount of time comes with the territory in filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada. The six nominations under the process that brings us together today were all done in a matter of five or six weeks, roughl

Justice committee  Justice Moreau brings many advantages and a lot of experience. At the heart of her work, including before going to the bench, has been her active participation and organization around minority language and then in litigation, and some path-breaking work in that area.

Justice committee  I would first say that it was her years of experience and the abilities that she has demonstrated in her legal work. As a chief justice, she also showed leadership in legal areas both nationally and internationally.

Justice committee  I believe we discussed this same issue last year, and I said that an appointment is based on a whole set of criteria. The fact that Madam Moreau is a woman was not something that weighed in the balance one way or the other. However, that being said, that is no doubt part of what

Justice committee  First of all, our job was to identify candidates who are functionally bilingual. That played a role. The determining factor was not just her expertise in several fields, including the one you mentioned, but also the considerable leadership that she has demonstrated. These qualit

Justice committee  I haven't read everything Justice Moreau has written. Our committee had an application from Justice Moreau that included five of her judgments, covering a range of her work. This allowed us to assess her approach and her ability to write, think and contribute at the level a Sup

Justice committee  No, we didn't read all of her judgments. However, what we also did was speak with seven people as references. To come to the core of your question, we are satisfied there are no red flags.

Justice committee  Yes, the committee had an interview with the candidate. It would have lasted in the order of an hour. Those interviews have two qualities: One, they have a consistent set of questions, because you have to do that out of fairness to everyone. However, it is a dialogue and conver

Justice committee  I appreciate the question. Thank you. Our report and deliberations are, of course, conducted under commitments to confidentiality. For me to make any comment about who else applied or didn't apply, or who was or was not on the list, would not be appropriate.

Justice committee  If I may link the question, then, to the nomination and the background and expertise of Madam Justice Moreau, in her practice, as I mentioned, before being named to the bench in 1994, a very significant component of her work was in criminal defence work, and within that, a signif

Justice committee  If I understand correctly, you are asking me how many names were on the short list that was submitted to the Prime Minister. As I mentioned in my speech, there were two exceptional candidates on the list, one of whom was Madam Moreau.