Justice minister to select judges using existing process, for now

Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says she will use the existing judicial appointments process to fill several critical vacancies on Canada's superior courts.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee of MPs today, Wilson-Raybould said she understands some courts cannot wait for the conclusion of her review of how judges are appointed in Canada.

The minister has been under pressure to explain why she still hasn't named a single judge, six months into her mandate despite critical shortages of judges in key centres across the country.

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Last week chief justices in Alberta and Quebec told CBC News that judge shortages in Alberta and B.C. arecausing inexcusable delays. In Nunavut, some of the territory's circuit courtsmay have to be cancelled this year if judges are not appointed soon.

Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench Chief Justice Neil Wittman noted thata serious fraud case had been stayed due to institutional delays and that there were several more similar motions before his court. There are at least 46 superior court vacancies across Canada.

Wilson-Raybould hassaid she would be putting in "short-term procedures" to deal with the immediate needs on some courts.

"I am wondering what those short-term procedures are," Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked the minister at committee.

"I am engaged and have spoken to chief justices across the country and know that there are lists of potential justices that can be drawn from, and we are reviewing very closely those lists of persons (...) to fill those more urgent positions in the short-term," replied Wilson-Raybould, "those appointments will be coming as soon as possible, ensuring that we have done our due diligence in reviewing those names."

"[The vacancies] are all urgentbut there are some that are more urgent than others," she later told CBC News Network'sPower & Politics.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould

8 years ago

Duration 1:20

Jody Wilson-Raybould discusses the judge shortage across the country and how she will fill vacancies on the bench prior to finishing her review of how judges are appointed.

Minister to select from existing pools of judicial candidates

Those lists of judges have been compiled by judicial advisory committees, which vet and recommend candidates for appointment. Alberta's committee met as recently as March. Quebec Superior Court Chief Justice Jacques Fourniertold CBC News he has no doubts there are several highly-qualified people who could be appointed in short order.

The minister added that her review of judicial appointments is now underway and will look at how to improve diversity on the bench.

"We're committed to ensuring a comprehensive process that changes the identification of judges to be appointed to the federal courts. We're going to ensure that we do that based on merit, based on diversity that reflects Canada," Wilson-Raybouldtold host Rosemary Barton.

Shewill also look at whether to change the makeup of judicial advisory committees themselves, which were altered under the previous government to include a law enforcement representative.

As it stands now, the terms of all committees east of Toronto expired at the end of October and also need to be replenished.