QUESTION PERIOD — Justice
Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission
September 26, 2024
Senator Gold, Bill C-40, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, to make consequential amendments to other Acts and to repeal a regulation (miscarriage of justice reviews), is currently at second reading in the Senate.
Pursuant to this bill, which proposes to establish a new independent commission, a chief commissioner and four to eight other commissioners would be appointed by the Minister of Justice.
I was surprised to learn that this bill does not set out any language requirements for the commissioners who will be appointed. I also noted that knowledge of the official languages is not included in the criteria for selecting the members who will be part of any commissions of inquiry that are set up.
Senator Gold, does the government believe that the people who will be appointed to this miscarriage of justice review commission should have to be able to express themselves in both of Canada’s official languages?
Bill C-40 is a very important piece of legislation that will help mitigate the devastating effects of miscarriages of justice.
In other places where this type of commission has been set up, there has been a significant increase in the number of wrongful convictions that have been identified and, more importantly, overturned.
The new commission will be a federal institution as defined by the Official Languages Act, which means that it will have to provide services to Canadians and communicate with them in both French and English. Also, it will have a chief commissioner and eight other commissioners.
The bill does not require that every commissioner be fluent in both official languages. However, the commission will certainly have the capacity to review cases and serve Canadians in both of our official languages.
I hope that we can send this bill to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs very soon.
