New Alberta judges will help ease burden in the court system
The federal government has made a few long-awaited judicial appointments in Alberta, a move Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley called a step to ease pressure on the province’s overburdened court system.
“I think it will certainly help, anything helps, but certainly they continue to be under significant pressures,” Ganley said. “Even without vacancies, Alberta has the lowest number of Queen’s Bench justices per capita in the country, so we still are under significant pressure.”
Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced two appointments to the Alberta Court of Appeal and four appointments to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench.
Sheila Greckol, formerly a Court of Queen’s Bench justice in Edmonton, will now serve as a justice on the Alberta Court of Appeal in the provincial capital.
Greckol has also been appointed as a justice of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and the Court of Appeal in Nunavut.
Her appointment will fill a vacancy left after Justice Russell Brown was appointed last August to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Greckol’s position will be filled by the appointment of John Henderson to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench. Henderson had previously been a provincial court judge in Edmonton.
Sheilah Martin will move from her position as a Court of Queen’s Bench justice in Calgary to the Alberta Court of Appeal in Calgary, replacing Cliff O’Brien, who retired in November 2014.
Martin was also appointed as a justice of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and the Court of Appeal in Nunavut.
Gillian Marriot, a lawyer with Widdowson Kachur Ostwald Menzies LLP in Calgary, will take Martin’s place on the Court of Queen’s Bench. Douglas Mah, who previously served as secretary and general counsel with the Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta in Edmonton, has been appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton.
Mah is taking the place of Justice Dennis Thomas, who went into semi-retirement last June.
Avril Inglis, formerly a prosecutor with Alberta Justice in Edmonton, has also been appointed a Court of Queen’s Bench judge in Edmonton, filling a vacancy left after judge Frederica Schultz was elevated to the Court of Appeal in August 2015.
“We have filled the urgent judicial vacancies by drawing on a list of recommended candidates who are of the highest calibre and who are as diverse as Canada,” WilsonRaybould said.
Even with these recent appointments, Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench has four open vacancies and Alberta’s Court of Appeal still needs two more judges.
Alberta has the lowest number of Court of Queen’s Bench judges per capita in Canada even without these vacancies and would need 11 more to match the ratio of judges to population in B.C.
“Our Court of Queen’s Bench has done a lot of work with scheduling to ensure that they are able to serve the maximum number of people and to ensure timely access to justice,” Ganley said. “But, really, they’ve gone as far as they can go without additional appointments.” This announcement comes ahead of a promised overhaul of the federal process of judicial appointments.
Even without vacancies, Alberta has the lowest number of Queen’s Bench justices per capita in the country …