Monday, January 18, 2010

Harper's Judicial Tides

Lawyers Weekly makes an interesting observation - One third of federal judges now appointed by Harper government:
The Conservatives will have appointed one-third of the country’s federal judges by the time they celebrate their fourth anniversary in office this month.
...Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already had a major impact on the judiciary’s top echelons, despite leading a minority government. He has appointed two Supreme Court of Canada judges, as well as at least eight provincial chief, or associate chief, justices.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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4 comments:

Ted Betts said...

Interesting tidbit of information you won't read elsewhere.

How many are holdovers from Mulroney?

Together I bet you are close to 50% which puts paid to the claim of a "liberal-biased judiciary".

Cari said...

Aren't judges supposed to be more or less independent?

Eugene Forsey Liberal said...

re. Harper & democracy, you may want to install one of the banners at electionnightincanada.com as a way of educating people about the essential issue, that goes beyond prorogation & Saturday rallies.

Patrick Ross said...

One way or another, I'd daresay we need to have some checks and balances on the way judges are appointed in this country.

For one thing, perhaps we need to rethink the appointment of circuit judges in the first place.

In Open & Shut, John Ibbitson notes that elected judges in the United States may have a better record than Canadian appointed judges -- depending, of course, upon how you judge them.

Ibbitson cites a study in which American judges were compared to Canadian judges based on the numer of their decisions overturned on appeal. American judges tended to have fewer decisions overturned by an Appelate court.

Failing that, perhaps submitting circuit judges to be confirmed by Provincial Legislatures may be a good idea.