Organization and key rules governing the consultation

1. Presentation of a brief or testimony

Generally speaking, hearings are held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. One week prior to the hearing the Secretariat of the Commission will inform each participant of the date, time and place of the session.

Participants must arrive at least 30 minutes before the beginning of the session in which they are participating in the morning or the afternoon and confirm their presence at the reception desk. Staff at the reception desk will inform participants of the latest directives concerning the organization of the hearings. A participant may be accompanied by not more than two advisors during the presentation of his brief.

The hearings will be conducted in French but participants may speak English. No interpretation service will be offered. Each participant will have a maximum of 5 minutes to present the main elements of his brief and 4 minutes to testify. After each presentation, the participants may discuss with the co-chairs the contents of their briefs or testimony.

The hearings will be recorded. However, the recordings will only be used for internal purposes in conjunction with the Commission’s deliberations.

The media have access to the consultations but no interviews may be conducted in the hearing room.

 

2. Regional citizens’ forums

The citizens’ forums will be held in the evening from 7:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. In principle, the number of participants is not limited. However, the Commission reserves the right to restrict the number of participants when the number of registrants is very high.

One week prior to the forum, the Secretariat of the Commission will inform each participant of the date, time and place of the forum. Each participant must arrive at least 30 minutes before the beginning of the forum and confirm his presence at the reception desk.

The Commission co-chairs will act as moderators. They will oversee the smooth organization of the discussions and specify the rules governing intervention by participants.

The forums will be conducted in French but participants may speak English. No interpretation service will be offered. It should be noted that one of the two regional forums planned in Montréal (scheduled on November 29) will be held in English.

Generally speaking, the forum will be divided into three sections:

• the presentation of the themes and discussion topics;
• discussions with the participants;
• a summary by the co-chairs of the exchanges, and closing remarks.

During the discussions, participants will speak in the order in which they request to do so. To encourage the broadest possible participation, the time allocated to each speaker will be limited and participants will be informed of such limits.

The discussions will be recorded. However, the recordings will only be used for internal purposes in conjunction with the Commission’s deliberations.

The media have access to the forums, but no interviews may be conducted in the hearing room.