Hon. Rob Nicholson (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the answer is as follows: a) Two litigators from the Attorney General of Canada participated in the work of this inquiry. b) The costs and disbursements associated with the federal government's involvement in the work of this inquiry total approximately $21,450.00 (representing costs for photocopies, transcriptions and travelling as well as the costs authorized, in accordance with the terms of the policy on the indemnification of and legal assistance for crown servants, for the provision of legal assistance by private sector lawyers to witnesses wh ...[+++]o testified before Commissaire Grenier). c) The lawyers from the Attorney General of Canada represented the interest of the Attorney General of Canada and in this capacity, assisted two witnesses and were present at the testimony of two other witnesses. d) The Attorney General of Canada did not retain the services of private sector lawyers to work on this matter.

4. Firmly believes that a common minimum standard relating to procedural safeguards of suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union will ensure that any individual present within the territory of a Member State (irrespective of his or her nationality and situation) is entitled to assistance from and representation by a lawyer and/or, where appropriate, a procurator (a professional practitioner who, in Spain, France and Portugal represents a party before the courts), from the moment when, as a suspect of complicity in crime, he or she is placed under arrest, taken into custody or charged with an offence by ...[+++] a public authority appropriately empowered to do so, and that such assistance or representation is provided free of charge if the suspect or defendant has insufficient means to pay for it and the provision of such services is required in the interests of justice; the technical defence of suspects and defendants shall be compulsory and indefeasible at every stage and level of criminal proceedings; considers that the right to legal assistance should embrace, at every stage and all tiers of the proceedings, the complete confidentiality of contacts between the defence lawyer and the suspect or defendant, the presence of the defence lawyer each time the suspect or defendant is questioned and his right to put questions both to the suspect or defendant and to any witnesses, and the right of the defence lawyer to submit evidence in exoneration;

5. Firmly believes that a common minimum standard relating to procedural safeguards of suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union (hereinafter 'common minimum standard) will ensure that any individual present within the territory of a Member State (irrespective of his or her nationality and situation) is entitled to assistance from and representation by a lawyer and / or, where appropriate, a procurator (a professional practitioner who, in Spain, France and Portugal represents a party before the courts), from the moment when, as a suspect of complicity in crime, he or she is placed under arrest, taken i ...[+++]nto custody or charged with an offence by a public authority appropriately empowered to do so, and that such assistance or representation is provided free of charge if the suspect or defendant has insufficient means to pay for it and the provision of such services is required in the interests of justice; the technical defence of suspects and defendants shall be compulsory and indefeasible at every stage and level of criminal proceedings; considers that the right to legal assistance should embrace, at every stage and all tiers of the proceedings, the complete confidentiality of contacts between the defence lawyer and the suspect or defendant, the presence of the defence lawyer each time the suspect or defendant is questioned and his right to put questions both to the suspect or defendant and to any witnesses, and the right of the defence lawyer to submit evidence in exoneration;

4. Firmly believes that a minimum common standard relating to procedural safeguards of suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union (hereinafter 'minimum common standard') will ensure that any individual present within the territory of a Member State (irrespective of his or her nationality and situation) is entitled to assistance from and representation by a lawyer and/or, where appropriate, a procurator (a professional practitioner who, in Spain, France and Portugal represents a party before the courts), from the moment when, as either perpetrator or accomplice, he or she is charged with an offence by a ...[+++]public authority (either police or judicial) and that such assistance or representation is provided free of charge if the suspect or defendant has insufficient means to pay for it and the provision of such services is required in the interests of justice;

Should the burden be on the Home State of the applicant to take on board at least the cost of the pre-litigation advice dispensed in that country even when the litigation takes place in another country- (Even this might be of little avail to the litigant, since a lawyer in the applicant's country might be unable to give sufficient advice on the laws and procedures in another country to dispense the litigant from the need to consult a lawyer in that country.)

miscellaneous factors, such as extra travel costs of litigants, witnesses, lawyers, etc.