As an individual who has dealt and worked within the courts system for a number of years, I was very happy to see a modernizing of the juror system with respect to the composition. I continuously get calls from constituents asking about this specific issue. So the ministry recently identified two issues that have affected the composition of jury rolls in Ontario. How are you working to prevent these errors from happening in the future? Is this the right time to implement further changes to the jury system?

Thank you to the member across for his submission—to both members for their submissions.

I guess my question would be specifically to the Juries Act, that particular portion in the bill. In particular, the Ontario trial lawyers, who I met with last year, were calling for an end to the use of civil juries. Civil juries have oftentimes led to exorbitant amounts of time in the delays in the court system. In Canada, there’s no constitutional right to a jury trial in most civil matters. Ontario is one of the last Canadian jurisdictions to grant parties the right to choose jury trials for most civil matters.

So my question to you would be: If most of Canada is actually moving away from civil jury options, why, through this modernization of the Juries Act, are you leaving this behind, when it clearly is a simple way of cutting red tape?

Those were wonderful comments from our member from Humber River–Black Creek. Thank you for also talking about juries and the need for diversity within our jury selection.

I recently learned that jury members in Ontario, I believe, are not paid for 10 days on the jury, and I’m wondering if you would suggest to this government that they look into that aspect. If jurors aren’t paid, that in itself creates an economic barrier for folks from different socio-economic backgrounds to participate in the jury system. And I might guess that women and BIPOC folks may be disproportionately impacted by those unpaid days as a juror.

Thank you to the member for an important question. Just before I get to it, I just want to say hi to Bill and recognize again his presence here. And I do want to say one thing because this ties into what I had said before. When he was minister and I was critic at the time, on a particular bill that came forward—and I don’t agree where it ended up—there was some conversation, there was some consultation at the time. It was rare under the last session, and I’m hoping that changes under this session. So I do acknowledge him on that as minister.

I want to state for the record that jury selection is important. It has to be more diverse. We’re opening up acts. We have the possibility to make changes. I know the government has many lawyers and people that come from that background here. I think you know it’s the right thing to do. Let’s do it. Let’s make sure that access to juries is more accessible and more diverse and reflective of our population. Thank you for that question.

When it comes to carbon sequestration, I will rely on the experts’ opinions. But I had mentioned this one thing—and again, it was mentioned by another colleague of mine: The simplest way to develop a carbon sink is to plant trees, is to protect environmentally protected lands. We have so many green spaces that this government is so eager—environmentally protected green spaces, again, under the conservation authorities that were established by previous Conservative governments. If you really want to provide a sink for carbon, plant trees, protect environmentally sensitive green spaces. That is a non-controversial, important way forward.

Again, it’s very important to highlight this issue. Why do we bring it up? Since the government is opening up certain acts, this is something that is very key and very important. We call on members of the public to come and serve on a jury, and sometimes a trial is going to take longer for two weeks. If you’re not compensating them for that, how can they simply do their job to help as a juror? It’s not easy. I think this is something that you should take back to your ministries; it’s something that you should work on—and I think you will find the support of the official opposition. I think it’s the right way forward. Let’s compensate those jurors, and let’s make it more accessible.