Hon. Pierre J. Dalphond: Honourable senators, I will be very brief. I will refer to a Supreme Court judgment, Valente v. The Queen, 1985 Supreme Court Reports 673. I understand the rationale behind the amendment is to make federal judges similar to provincial judges in connection with their suspension and the disciplinary process. The judgment says:

Section 11(d) cannot be construed and applied so as to accord provincial court judges the same constitutional guarantees of security of tenure and security of salary and pension as superior court judges for that construction would, in effect, amend the judicature provisions of the Constitution. The standard of judicial independence cannot be a standard of uniform provisions but rather must reflect what is common to the various approaches to the essential conditions of judicial independence in Canada.

I will not repeat what I said previously on security of financial independence, but, quite frankly, to use the case of provincial laws and to try to apply that to federal judges is certainly done, I guess, with a certain lack of understanding of the law.