Trudeau’s law society: Exclusive data analysis reveals Liberals appoint judges who are party donors cdnpoli
Just weeks before, Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote Justin Trudeau urging him to fill the “untenable” superior court vacancies. “The government’s inertia regarding vacancies and the absence of satisfactory explanations for these delays are disconcerting,” he wrote in a letter obtained by Radio-Canada.
Judicial appointments in the Trudeau era were matched against Elections Canada’s political donations database. Matches were reviewed multiple times for accuracy before the data were provided to each court or tribunal for review by the members in question. “It is essential to the functioning of the judiciary that citizens have confidence in judges,” Crandall continued. “So, when you introduce this element of appearing to be more likely to become a judge when a Liberal government is in power if you make a donation to the Liberal Party, that has the potential to undermine people’s confidence in the judiciary.”Article content
“Placing a large number of judges in this trial court, which is clearly the most important trial court in Canadian law, is politically logical,” he said.Erin Crandall, Acadia University Spokespeople for both the Prime Minister’s Office and new Minister of Justice Arif Virani insist judicial appointments are “always” based on merit. As evidence, they point to the fact that roughly 80 per cent of the appointments analyzed by the Post and the IJF had not made donations to a federal political party.
They also say there have been improvements in partisan judicial appointments over the decades thanks to reforms starting with former prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1988, and continuing on the Justin Trudeau era. The changes were intended to increase the independence and, to a lesser extent, the transparency of judicial advisory committees , who are tasked with reviewing applications for judicial postings and giving them one of three grades: highly recommended, recommended or unable to recommend.
New Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani takes the oath of office as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on during a cabinet swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Wednesday, July 26, 2023.In 2019, the Globe and Mail revealed that the PMO used a partisan database called Liberalist, as well as caucus resources and MP networks, to vet candidates recommended by the justice minister before formalizing their appointment.
The records also show the share of NDP donors appointed by the Liberals has risen significantly, from 12.5 per cent in 2016 to 28 per cent of donor appointees in 2022, the year the party entered into a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals. Another possible explanation is a form of “self-censorship” by conservative-leaning candidates, said court watchers. Those candidates may be waiting for a Conservative government to throw their hat in the ring.
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