The Canadian Bar Association is pleased that the government has improved the judicial appointment process and has filled some vacancies on the courts.
The Canadian Bar Association agrees with the reinstatement of the “highly recommended” category for judicial candidates as a way of denoting truly exceptional candidates. We are also happy that voting on Judicial Advisory Committees has been rebalanced so that the majority of members will be independent of the government.
We welcome the move toward transparency and openness in selecting the general public members of the JACs, and in requiring people to complete a questionnaire when they apply for appointments. At the same time, we urge the government to move quickly to fill the remaining vacancies. Significant delays in the court system have a serious impact on people moving through the justice system.
We applaud the government’s commitment to collect and publish statistical information on judicial applicants and appointees. A growing number of lawyers are women and members of racialized and other minority groups. Yet their numbers are not reflected on the courts. Open data is a good first step to diversity. We look forward to working with the Minister to achieve our shared goal of increasing diversity on the bench.
René Basque, CBA President