Finance committee  I think the issue of cultural competency of lawyers and judges is a very important one. We have a very plural and complex society. The complexities of society on the financial side, the economic side, the family side with regard to family relations, and the child's side are refle

Finance committee  Yes. I know that when the federal government does budgeting now, it is thinking about gender impacts, which I think is appropriate. In family justice, every law has a significant gender impact, as the questioners point out. By and large in this country, women still do more child

Finance committee  Yes, I know how to get attention here. I should say that the issue of the independent judiciary is very important. Judges want this information as much or more than anybody else, and they are happy to have better data. Part of the responsibility rests with Statistics Canada, wh

Finance committee  We don't have the kinds of statistics that we'd like. We don't even have the most basic data about family justice in Canada. However, having said that, I think it's clear from everybody who's involved in the family courts in different parts of the country.... I should say in King

Finance committee  We don't even know how many divorces there are a year in Canada. Because of the changes in Statistics Canada over the decades, we have much less basic statistical data now on family justice than we did in the past, let alone the kind of research that, understandably, your committ

Finance committee  It would be great if we had more Canadian research. That might be another part of your mission to perhaps fund research, but the research we do have, both within Canada and particularly internationally, indicates that having specialist judges results in both faster resolution and

Finance committee  Could I just add that I think it's very good that your committee and the government are considering these issues, which certainly have very significant economic implications. Families that are going through divorce are experiencing significant economic difficulties and place a bu

Finance committee  Mr. Callaghan certainly hit many of the major points that unified family courts will help address, namely, issues related to self-represented litigants and access to justice. They are certainly not a total solution, but will only improve the position of self-represented litigants

Finance committee  Thank you very much. It's a privilege to be here to address the question of the increase in the number of unified family court judges in Canada to 75. I am a law professor at Queen's University. I've worked in the family justice field for 40 years as a lawyer, researcher, and t

Justice committee  Certainly, if you're talking about the court, there are some young people for whom diversion to extrajudicial sanctions is going to be the most effective way of dealing with things. But if the case is more serious, even in the case of a first-time offender, let alone someone who

Justice committee  Yes. This relates both to the Nunn inquiry and to litigation in some cases across Canada. The present definition of violent offence actually requires an intent to do harm. I support the intent of the amendment. It comes out of the Nunn inquiry, among other places, to say that if

Justice committee  I think what you did in Sparwood is a national inspiration. You did tremendous work there. I think having more situations in which young people actually hear from victims and hear in some cases about the tremendous damage they have done.... I would even sometimes consider this in

Justice committee  Yes, and I think there are clearly offences for which adult sentences are appropriate, and homicide would obviously be one of them. The act does allow for that, and it requires the crown to make a very difficult decision about whether or not to seek an adult sentence. In some cas

Justice committee  One of the most effective things we can do in terms of helping offenders, and particularly victims also, is to have more emphasis on restorative justice. Certainly young people should be hearing from victims. The problem is, some young people who are committing offences don't app

Justice committee  Yes, and thank you for that opportunity. I was hoping for a one-minute signal, but I must have missed it.