A Citizens' Reference Panel is a non-compulsory public jury used in Canada to provide policy advice to public and elected officials. They are generally convened by the government or a public agency and typically meet several times over a period of weeks or months to learn about, discuss, and reach agreement on recommendations for how to address a contentious public issue.
Citizens' Reference Panels will have anywhere from 24–54 citizens members, with equal numbers of men and women, while matching the age profile and geographic distribution of the population in the region or jurisdiction they represent.
Members of a Citizens' Reference Panel are randomly invited and selected during a
civic lottery process. They are considered volunteers and with the exception of reimbursements for travel and childcare, they receive no financial compensation for their time. The idea being that the time each citizen volunteers to the panel is part of a public service, such as
jury duty
Jury duty or jury service is service as a juror in a legal proceeding.
Juror selection process
The prosecutor and defense can dismiss potential jurors for various reasons, which can vary from one state to another, and they can have a specific ...
.
Much like a
Royal Commission, the recommendations of a Citizens' Reference Panel are non-binding though they do carry moral stature.
Citizens' Reference Panels developed as an offshoot of the
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in British Columbia in 2004 and in
Ontario in 2006. As of 2016, MASS LBP reports having completed 25 Citizens' Reference Panels in Canada.
See also
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Citizens' assembly
A citizens' assembly (also known as citizens' jury or citizens' panel or people's jury or policy jury or citizens' initiative review or consensus conference or citizens' convention) is a body formed from randomly selected citizens to delibera ...
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Deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional ...
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Democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
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Direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
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Sortition
In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger ...
References
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External links
Sorted: Civic Lotteries and the Future of Public ParticipationThe BC Citizens AssemblyThe Ontario Citizens AssemblyThe Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform a record of Ontario’s first citizens’ assembly process
Government of Canada
Deliberative groups