JUSTICE REBUKES LIBERALS FOR NOT APPOINTING JUDGES
The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada publicly criticized the government Thursday for failing to fill 45 federal judicial vacancies on court benches across the country, from the Supreme Court on down.
“There is something deeply wrong with a hiring scheme that repeatedly proves itself incapable of foreseeing, preparing for and filling vacancies as they arise,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said in an address to the Canadian Bar Association’s convention.
“The perpetual crisis of judicial vacancies in Canada is an avoidable problem that needs to be tackled and solved. Without a full complement of judges, and an efficient system for anticipating and filling vacancies, delay will continue to be a feature of our justice system.”
It has become custom for the circumspect McLachlin, who also chairs the Canadian Judicial Council, to use the annual event as a platform to speak out about issues and concerns affecting the justice system.
This year, however, her remarks were cutting and come as the top court itself faces the Sept. 1 retirement of Atlantic Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell, whose departure was announced March 22.
The government last week changed the appointment process for the top court with the creation of an advisory board to recommend potential new judges. The prime minister will continue to have final approval over the board’s nominee.
While acknowledging the process of selecting a new high court justice is important, McLachlin is clearly frustrated by the delay in naming Cromwell’s successor.
“It is now August and still no replacement has been appointed,” she said. “It is essential that the current vacancy be filled so that the Supreme Court of Canada can discharge its responsibilities in the session to come in the best possible fashion. The court needs — and the Canadian people are entitled to — a full complement of nine judges to decide the complex and important questions before it.”
Speaking to reporters later, McLachlin refused to say what she thinks of the new process or comment on the possibility that Atlantic Canada could lose its traditional seat on the court.
In her speech, McLachlin called on the government to “meet its obligation to appoint judges in a timely fashion” and fill the lingering vacancies for federally appointed judicial positions across the country that are delaying trials and other legal actions.
Later with reporters, she said the Constitution “says a person charged with a crime is constitutionally entitled to be tried within a reasonable time. That means something, that’s a right that that person has.”
She also fired back at critics who complain the court is usurping the law-making role of Parliament and provincial legislatures, most recently by striking down long-standing criminal laws against prostitution and physician-assisted suicide.
“We are very conscious of the fact that our elected parliamentarians and legislators are the primary lawmakers,” she said after her speech. “But we also have a Constitution, and citizens have a right to come to the court and ask the court to weigh in on whether a particular provision is constitutional.
“I don’t view courts as ‘legislating,’ that’s a label some people put on it, but I believe that what we are doing is our constitutional task of determining whether a challenged law is consistent with the Constitution.”
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced 15 judicial appointments in June, promoting one judge to the Federal Court of Appeal and filling a number of other vacancies in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Eight are new judges while seven are sitting judges moving from one bench to another.
On Thursday, speaking before the House of Commons justice committee about replacing the Supreme Court’s Cromwell, Wilson-Raybould said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will ask those tasked with developing a short list of candidates to include judges from Atlantic Canada.
“The next appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada will not necessarily be a person from Atlantic Canada,” she told the committee. “Having said that, we recognize the importance of regional representation.”
DELAY WILL CONTINUE TO BE A FEATURE OF OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM.