Thank you for that question.
Yes, Mr. Chair, there are changes in this bill to the court martial panel structure.
Essentially, for a quick walk-through of what will happen here, the first change the bill will provide for is a reduction in the rank of the senior member at court martial, currently at the colonel rank level, to lieutenant-colonel, as long as the accused is no higher in rank than a lieutenant-colonel.
That change is being proposed simply because of the resource implications imposed on the Canadian Forces in engaging colonels in every general court martial that is convened. When a general court martial is convened under the current scheme, a colonel needs to sit as the senior member of the panel. This will reduce the burden on the Canadian Forces and simply reflect the fact that a lot of these matters really don't need somebody at the colonel rank level to sit on them. It's a resourcing decision that is consistent with the interests of justice. That is what is going on there.
The other major change that is provided for in this piece of legislation is to essentially provide for a greater number of Canadian Forces members the opportunity to sit on the panel. We used to have a rank-based restriction with respect to panel membership. Nobody below the rank of captain could sit on a panel. At the NCM level, it was warrant officers and above who could sit. This bill will essentially allow anybody with three years' service in the military to sit on a panel, so long as they are not junior in rank to the accused person, the individual being tried by the court martial.
Again, that is responding to a recommendation that came out of the Senate, actually, in the context of a review they did, which was suggesting that we reduce rank distinctions in the panel context. We've looked at that and we think this is an appropriate way to try to address that issue while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the panel, which is there to perform a significantly different role from what you see in a jury downtown. We are not creating a panel of peers in the court martial system. We are creating a panel that has an understanding of military discipline and essentially is responsible for the maintenance of enforcement of discipline in the military.
Like everything else we do in this system, we try to strike that fine balance between making sure that the military interests are not undermined while at the same time we look at means to ensure the system is as fair as it possibly can be for the people who are subject to it.