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Page 6 February 1, 2016 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT ©2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, com - pleteness or currency of the contents of this pub- lication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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Last week, Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef set up a nine- member advisory committee to draw up a list of meritorious Canadians from which Trudeau will name five new sena- tors to help deal with the f lood of Com- mons legislation coming over to the Sen- ate in February. Here's how it works: The nine-member advisory commit- tee interviews possible senators whose names have been sent in by various groups and organizations across Cana- da. Then it makes recommendations to Trudeau, who will have the final pick on who gets to be a senator. The head of the advisory committee is Huguette Labelle, one of the greatest fed- eral public servants in Canadian history. The committee is set up in a way about which nobody can complain — it includes men, women, members of cul- tural communities, and people of the highest intelligence and standing in their community. Labelle has two five-year appointees on her team — Dr. Indira Samarasekera, an engineer and former president of the University of Alberta, and Professor Daniel Jutras, dean of Law at McGill University — no fools, either of them. Then there's Murray Se- gal, one-time Ontario deputy attorney general and former deputy minister for Aborigi- nal Affairs, and Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. Trudeau had said during the elec- tion campaign that he'd put people with aboriginal connections in the Senate. Labelle's committee will have members who'll know where to find the best ab- original connections in the country. Quebec rates two advisory commit- tee members — Olympic gold medalist Sylvie Bernier and noted psychiatrist Dr. Yves Lamontagne. The committee is rounded off with two more members from Manitoba — Susan Lewis, a dedicated Winnipeg United Way executive, and musician, songwriter, and recording artist Heather Bishop. The advisory committee gets to cover all the bases: politics, government, law, aboriginal affairs, sports, medicine, and the arts. Not a single politician in the lot. The advisory committee picks a first- round total of 25 people — 10 of them from Ontario, 10 from Manitoba, and five from Quebec. Trudeau will make his Senate appointments from this list — two from Ontario, two from Manitoba, and one from Quebec. It is a modest start; very modest, in fact, considering there are 22 vacancies in the Senate right now. That's about one vacancy for every five Senate seats. After that comes a second round where candidates are allowed to send in their own names rather than be- ing nominated by groups and associa- tions. There's a reason there are so many va- cancies. The former prime minister, Ste- phen Harper, hadn't appointed any new senators for years. The vacancies just kept getting worse. It was never clear why he did (or didn't do) this. Maybe he was planning to bring in a law that senators should be elected. He had once promised that. Maybe he wanted to eventually abol- ish the Senate altogether. If he had, the New Democrats would have been on his side. We know how they feel about the Senate. Who knows his real reason. Trudeau had his own views on the Senate and promised he would fill five Senate vacancies by mid-February. Right now, it looks as if he may be able to do it. Five new Trudeau-appointed senators won't be enough to turn the upper house into a Trudeau Senate. It will still be a Conservative Senate. The issue will be whether Conserva- tive senators will block Trudeau's legisla- tion coming from the Commons. Should the Conservatives block his legislation, would Trudeau just sit back and blame the Conservative senators, or would he suddenly counter by larding up the Senate with his own people, as his predecessors used to do? Labelle knows what she's looking for in possible new senators — strong Cana- dians with a good mix of knowledge and personal skills for the job, not Liberal partisans. She's looking for "people of the high- est personal integrity, ethics and a com- mitment to public life." As well, she wants people who know the Constitution and have a personal commitment to public life. After what the Senate went through with Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Pa- mela Wallin, Mac Harb, and 30 other senators under investigation by the po- lice at present, the virtues of honesty and integrity will also figure high in the makeup of Senate prospects she will sub- mit to Trudeau. They had better. The image of the Senate has taken a terrible beating in re- cent years under Harper. It may not be able to last through another one. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance re- porter and columnist on Parlia- ment Hill. His e-mail address is richardcleroux34@gmail.com. The Hill Richard Cleroux Conviction confounds When you are in the politics or news game for a while, there will be ongo- ing stories or issues that lie dormant for years, roiling in the background. One day — usually when no one anticipates it — there is one particular case that lights up like a piece of kindling and sets the town ablaze. The shooting death of Sammy Yatim was that story. The jury verdict against Toronto police officer James Forcillo is be- lieved to be the first time ever that an officer in Ontario has been con- victed in the death of a civilian in the line of duty. The death of Yatim raises important questions about use of force, about community distrust of police, and about Ontarians' perceptions of how fair the justice system is when it comes to dealing with one of their own. When the verdict came down this week, some voiced relief that an officer had been convicted. The case also raised important questions about how social media inf luences public perception of an accused — and how it makes incon- venient questions about public policing and the justice system harder to ignore. After the verdict, Forcillo's lawyer Peter Brauti stated that public opinion had been tainted by "trial-by-YouTube," and that prodigious so- cial media on the case created public pressure. It is important to remember that no one is free from the barrage of information available online — whether they are a prospective juror, an officer of the court, or otherwise. What Forcillo was convicted for was harder to understand and clari- fy, especially because the officer was found not guilty of second-degree murder for the first three shots he fired, which killed Yatim, but guilty of attempted murder for a second round of six shots Forcillo fired. For lawyers, the distinction between charges may be abundantly clear — but for many Canadians, the word "guilty" was the pivotal phrase. The lawyers among us with familiarity on nuances of criminal law are charged to go forth and share in- sights on how it manifests in complicated cases. LT

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