Ottawa — The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) says reform is needed to improve the selection process of justices to the Supreme Court of Canada that would see the creation of a judicial advisory committee to vet nominees, similar to the system in place for appointments to the lower courts.
That advisory committee, says the CBA, would serve to screen candidates and make recommendations; the government, for its part, would undertake not to appoint any candidate that the committee was unable to recommend.
“The CBA is proposing an open, transparent and de-politicized process that would inspire Canadians to feel confident about the integrity of the system,” says CBA President Fred Headon in a speech at the CBA’s Constitutional and Human Rights Law conference on Friday, June 27.
The CBA is proposing that the new advisory committee include representatives of the federal Minister of Justice and MPs, along with representatives from the legal community and the public. “Such a system would be responsive to the desire to have Parliamentarians involved in the process, provide for public input, and maintain the integrity of the advisory committee process that has served us so well in the lower courts,” adds Fred Headon.
The speech Remarks by Fred Headon is available online. For interviews, contact Hannah Bernstein at hannahb@cba.org. The conference program is also available.
The CBA is dedicated to supporting the rule of law, improvements in the law, and the administration of justice. Some 37,500 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.