We are very much of the view that this, as a mandatory requirement, should be removed. The reason for that is that the appellate process is very cumbersome, and it requires a great deal of sophistication and expertise.
To give you a sense of how it works, when a person appeals they have to file a notice of appeal, they have to order transcripts for the hearing that are relevant, and then they have to file a factum. The Crown needs to respond, and then there's a hearing before three judges of the court of appeal. That process, in the best-case scenario, usually happens within a year. That process often requires legal aid support if a person is unsophisticated and in custody. Legal aid has its own criteria for merit, and there may be many cases where legal aid is not prepared to fund something if there is no merit on the face of what the accused person can muster in terms of grounds of appeal.
Therefore, you're setting up a situation where people, particularly those who have falsely pled guilty, will see significant barriers to interceding at the appellate level, such that they will be completely discouraged from doing that, or not know how to do that; and you won't be able to access the commission after the fact, because you haven't done that step.