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CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 142 Ï NUMBER 067 Ï 2nd SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, March 14, 2008 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 4175 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, March 14, 2008 The House met at 10 a.m. As provided in Bill C-30, the specific claims tribunal act, the members of the specific claims tribunal are to be appointed among sitting Superior Court judges and six of the new appointments to be authorized under the bill are intended to help the Superior Courts to Prayers free up experienced judges to take on the new work of the tribunal. The establishment of this tribunal represents the cornerstone of this government's reform of the specific claims resolution process. GOVERNMENT ORDERS The remaining 14 appointments will be allocated among the 6 Ï (1005) jurisdictions that have previously submitted compelling requests for [English] more judges. JUDGES ACT Each one of those jurisdictions of Nunavik, Ontario, Quebec, The House proceeded to the consideration of Bill C-31, An Act to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and my home province of amend the Judges Act, as reported (without amendment) from the New Brunswick have provided detailed submissions to support their committee. requests, and there is no doubt that these six provinces have an immediate need for these new appointments. The Speaker: There being no motions at report stage, the House will now proceed without debate to the putting of the question on the The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights gave motion to concur in the bill at report stage. careful consideration to this bill and approved it without amendment, Hon. Gordon O'Connor (for the Minister of Justice and which is key. All parties in this House support this bill because we Attorney General of Canada) moved that the bill be concurred in. recognize that there is a real and pressing need for new judicial resources within our trial courts, and so do our chief justices, our The Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? judges, members of the bar and, most important, Canadians who are Some hon. members: Agreed. involved in our judicial system. The Speaker: I declare the motion carried. As well, the first nations communities look forward to having (Motion agreed to) access to the effective and independent process offered by the specific claims tribunal. We certainly do not expect that this The Speaker: When shall the bill be read the third time? By amendment is the answer, because it is not the answer to all future leave, now? requirements of the courts. However, it does respond to the clear needs of the six affected provinces at this time. Our government has Some hon. members: Agreed. made it very clear that we are open to considering future requests for Hon. Gordon O'Connor (for the Minister of Justice and additional judges in due course and when that need is clearly Attorney General of Canada) moved that bill be read the third demonstrated, as it has been in this case. When that occurs, the time and passed. government will respond appropriately. Hon. Greg Thompson (Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to stand today in support of Bill Before I close, I want to make one final important point about C-31, An Act to amend the Judges Act. playing politics with our courts and the judges who preside over our courts. The amendment proposed in this bill would authorize the appointment of 20 new judges to the provincial superior trial courts, This week in New Brunswick, we have seen the potential harm which will allow us to respond to an urgent need for more judges to and danger that such political games can cause. We saw the member handle increasing caseloads and mounting delays in a number of for Beauséjour try to score partisan points by claiming that our jurisdictions across the country. We have heard that in every corner government was not appointing enough bilingual judges. Even the of the country. facts show otherwise. The member for Beauséjour simply refused to do his homework. Either that or he simply did not know or purposely This amendment would support the effective and expeditious ignored the fact that three of the six judges who we have appointed resolution of specific claims through the newly proposed specific in New Brunswick are bilingual. Of course that is in a province claims tribunal. where francophones make up 30% of the province's population. 4176 COMMONS DEBATES March 14, 2008 Government Orders I do not need to remind members that New Brunswickers are This speaks to the generosity of New Brunswick. When I travel to proud of our place in Canada's only officially bilingual province. We northern New Brunswick as a unilingual anglophone, I am received are proud of our linguistic duality. We are proud of how as I would be in any part of this country. Some of us do not have the francophones and anglophones work every day, shoulder to ability to speak both languages. I wish I did but I cannot, not like the shoulder, for a better future, a stronger province and a greater member opposite. However, it is a real testament to the generosity of country, and our government supports that vision. this country that when we go there, the people fully appreciate that we are working on their behalf as best we can. We will not let the political games being played by the member for Beauséjour divide New Brunswick or sidetrack our province in its It is a credit to this country and to my home province of New steady progress. We are very proud of our province and the progress Brunswick that a unilingual francophone or anglophone can be made by all governments, past and present, of the province of New successful and achieve high office in government and in our court Brunswick. system. However, we are very sensitive to the fact that when people go before the court, we need to have a bilingual capability within our In that spirit, Bill C-31 represents an important step toward court system, and we have worked very hard to achieve that. improving access to justice in Canada. I want to point out for the member opposite that the member for I wish to thank all hon. members for their recognition, the Beauséjour was being disingenuous when he spoke. A point I made advancement of this significant bill and their support for its speedy when I responded to the newspaper, the Telegraph Journal in New passage. It is very much appreciated. Brunswick, the paper ran what I considered to be a very one-sided [Translation] story that did not actually represent the facts. One of the judges, who we appointed to what we call the military judges compensation Hon. Robert Thibault (West Nova, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would committee, is the father-in-law of the member for Beauséjour. The like to thank the Minister of Veterans Affairs for his comments. He reason he was appointed was that he is very qualified. His name is spoke about how proud he is of New Brunswick, which he feels Guy A. Richard and, as I mentioned, he is the father-in-law of the offers suitable legal services in French. I am happy to see how proud member for Beauséjour who stood and suggested that we did not he is of his province. honour bilingualism in the province of New Brunswick. That is I urge him to extend that pride to the other maritime provinces, totally disingenuous. particularly Nova Scotia. There were three bilingual Federal Court In addition to appointing the judges I have mentioned to the judges in that province. Two of them are retiring: Justice Boudreau superior court, we appointed the hon. member for Beauséjour's and Justice Batiot. They will be replaced by anglophones. For the father-in-law, and he should consider that and be very cognizant of it entire province of Nova Scotia, from Cape Breton to southwestern when he next speaks in the House of Commons. Nova Scotia, including the provincial capital, there will be only one bilingual judge. That is completely unacceptable. It is unthinkable Mr. Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic, NDP): Mr. Speaker, that we would move down to one judge from three. judges are important to us in the Northwest Territories because we have a high rate of criminal charges. We appreciate the work they do. Of the judges I mentioned, Justice Boudreau was appointed by Mr. Mulroney some time ago. Mr. Chrétien appointed a number of However, the government is engaged in a cost reduction program. bilingual judges in Nova Scotia. Now, this government is replacing The plan of the Conservative government would salary judges, but two francophones with two anglophones. In just two years of this how would it ensure that we have the kind of resources required to government, French-language legal services in Nova Scotia have take on extra judges, given that we have to sometimes fly them and dropped by 66%. their court staff to locations thousands of miles away from their courthouse? The minister spoke about his pride in the bilingual legal services Ï (1015) in the Maritimes, but will he extend that pride to the Acadians and francophones of Nova Scotia? Hon. Greg Thompson: Mr. Speaker, we responded in a very positive way to a need across the country.