OTTAWA–Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he’s not considering changes to the judicial appointment process after four premiers wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for more input into how some judges are selected.
“As premiers from across Canada, we write jointly to advance reform to the process of appointments to the superior trial courts and courts of appeal of the provinces, as well as to the Supreme Court of Canada,” the premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Alberta wrote to the Carney government in a letter released Tuesday morning.
“We are calling for a new, collaborative approach, wherein our governments can meaningfully engage in filling judicial positions in our respective jurisdictions,” the letter read.
Ontario’s Doug Ford, Quebec’s François Legault, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, and Alberta’s Danielle Smith asked that federal judicial appointments for those courts come from a pool of candidates greenlit by each respective province “and that both the provincial and federal governments be given full access to the same information for all assessed judicial candidates.”
The federal justice minister said Tuesday that’s “not something that we’re considering at this point in time.”
Fraser said the federal government has already made appointments that reflect provincial feedback.
“If (premiers) have issues that they would like to have addressed, we can talk through them. If they had substantive concerns about the judges that are being appointed, they should say so,” Fraser said.
“But my perspective right now is that when they have been invited — up until very recently — we’ve seen a willingness to participate. We have excellent recommendations that have come through. In certain instances, including recently in Alberta, we’ve seen appointments made that were the subject of very positive feedback from my provincial counterpart.”
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, however, said that when it comes to Quebec in particular, Ottawa should be receptive to new ideas.
“Well, we’ve always taken into consideration the different proposals by the Quebec government, and by provinces, and I think we should be open to it. I think the more we’re able to showcase collaborative federalism in our country and make it work, (the) more Canadians win across the country from it,” Joly told reporters.
At present, judges are appointed on the advice of committees representing each province and territory, but their recommendations are non-binding.
The quartet of premiers said Canada is an “outlier” compared to countries like the United States, Australia, Germany and Switzerland, where appointments are largely left up to regional jurisdictions.
Last month, Smith threatened to withhold provincial funding for new judges if federal reforms were not undertaken.
Fraser said at the time that independence was paramount in the appointment process, and said that “political threats” about pay infringed on that independence.
