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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 316

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 23, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Mr. James Maloney (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • May/23/24 8:03:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is a pleasure to rise again this evening to join this conversation that is so central to our democracy. There is something I want to talk about, that I touched on earlier, about federally appointed judges and our judiciary in Canada, which is one of the strongest in the world, in my opinion. We are very fortunate in Canada to have an independent and highly regarded judiciary that is respected around the world. Canada's exceptional superior court judges are appointed through a robust, independent process, a process that our government was proud to establish in 2016. This process emphasizes transparency, merit and the diversity of the Canadian population. It continues to ensure that Canadian superior court judges meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity. Our government considers judicial appointments a priority. We recognize that a strong and independent superior court judicial appointment process is crucial to public confidence in our justice system. That is why, in October of 2016, our government implemented significant reforms to the superior court judicial appointment process. These changes were designed to increase the openness and transparency of the process, promote diversity on the superior court bench and help bolster Canadians' confidence in the process by which their superior court judges are appointed. Today, I would like to highlight some of these crucial reforms. First, our government introduced changes to promote diversity on the superior court bench. Ensuring our superior court judiciary reflects the diversity of Canadians is fundamental to a fair and effective justice system. When Canadians see themselves reflected in those who sit on the bench, their overall confidence in the administration of justice increases. The application form for superior court appointments was reworked to allow applicants to share their experiences, tell their stories and self-identify by gender; as indigenous, 2SLGBTQI+, racialized, a member of a cultural or ethnic group; and as living with a disability if they chose to do so. Another one of our reforms was to reconstitute the judicial advisory committees, JACs, to be more reflective of the diversity of our local communities and to provide members with training on diversity, on conscious bias and assessment of merit. The JACs play an important role in the appointments process. They are responsible for considering applications, assessing each applicant as either highly recommended, recommended or unable to recommend for appointment, and reporting their assessments to the Minister of Justice. Another reform was with respect to the independence and effectiveness of the JACs. In addition to promoting diversity, the 2016 changes increased the independence and effectiveness of the JACs. We instituted an open selection process for the three JAC members who represent the general public, to give any member of the public the opportunity to express their interest in being involved, and to ensure that Canadians are properly represented in the appointment process. The next reform is with respect to transparency and rigour. Our 2016 reforms to the superior court appointment process included measures to increase transparency. Since 2016, the commissioner for federal judicial affairs, which administers the appointment process, has collected and published statistics and demographic information on those who apply for judicial appointments and those who are appointed. This publicly accessible information, published on the commissioner's website, helps Canadians gain a better understanding of the makeup of our superior court judiciary, the work of the JACs and the number of highly qualified jurists who are motivated to serve their communities as judges. In the 2022 reforms to the superior court appointment process, we made further changes to the process in response to comments we received from organizations such as the Canadian Judicial Council and the Canadian Bar Association. The application form was revised to ensure that the JACs received thorough, comprehensive and relevant information on candidates. The revised form also incorporated more respectful and inclusive language while continuing to give candidates the flexibility to highlight their experiences, including their interactions with their communities, and explain how their experiences have shaped them. I am proud that since the reform process was implemented, more than half of the new judges appointed are women and the appointments broadly provide representation that is more in line with the diversity of Canadian society. I would also emphasize that this government has, time and time again, demonstrated a meaningful commitment to access to justice by increasing the number of judges serving Canadians. Beginning in budget 2017, our government has funded 116 new judicial positions. Furthermore, most recently, in budget 2024, we have proposed that 17 judicial positions originally allocated to unified family courts in budget 2018 be repurposed to general trial courts. This would allow for a timely response to demonstrated current pressures on superior courts, including family matters. I fully appreciate the critical importance of filling vacancies, and I am committed and the minister is committed to continuing to do so as quickly as possible. Since November 2015, this government has made more than 730 judicial appointments. We are pleased that since his appointment in July 2023, this minister has announced over 100 appointments, as he mentioned earlier. There will always be more steps to take and more improvements to make to ensure access to justice for Canadians. It takes the decisions and actions of a myriad of stakeholders who continually show their dedication to this laudable goal. I am deeply committed to continuing to do what I can to ensure a just and accessible justice system, since that is one of the reasons that I personally chose to enter public life. I know I share that sentiment with our Minister of Justice. I am proud that the federal government is doing its part as is unequivocally demonstrated by the minister's appointment record and by the government's support for new judicial resources in federal budgets. To conclude, I will return to where I started. Our reformed superior court judicial appointments process has allowed us to continue to appoint outstanding jurists, members of a globally respected independent judiciary. Since implementing the major reforms to the appointments process, hundreds of outstanding jurists have been appointed to the superior courts across the country. They are respected in their communities and come from a broad range of backgrounds and practice areas. Every day, these exceptional judges are serving Canadians and fulfilling their unique and crucial role in our justice system. These judges were appointed through the reformed appointments process that serves Canadians well. It is a process that emphasizes transparency and merit, that reports on its progress and that works toward a bench that better reflects Canada's diversity. Madam Chair, I am going to use the balance of my time to put a few questions to the minister, if I may. The first question is on an issue that comes up time and time again. I mentioned earlier that I am proud of the fact that I practised in the courts of Ontario for a lengthy period of time. I am proud of the fact that we have one of the greatest judiciaries in the world. I have never been let down by our judiciary. By practising for so long and appearing in courtrooms in most cities in Ontario, I spent a lot of time asking questions. However, there is a question that I never once asked when I walked into a courtroom: Who appointed this judge? Do members know why? It is because it does not matter, because we have faith in our system and Canadians have faith in our system. Unfortunately, the Conservative opposition members, every opportunity they get, pose a question. They allude to the fact that our system is somehow tainted. They allude to the fact that our appointments process is inadequate. All that does is undermine the confidence Canadians have in our system when they have every reason to have total confidence in our system. Is the fact that I never asked that question a reflection of our government's approach? The allegation that this government has any political input into the appointment of judges, in my opinion and in my experience, is absolutely and utterly false and I would like to hear the minister's views on this.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Mr. James Maloney
  • May/23/24 8:13:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am going to go back to a topic I touched on earlier. It has to do with the judiciary, judicial vacancies and delays in our courtrooms. As I said, I practised for a long time. I practised in Toronto, and there was a number of times I would have a trial ready to go in Newmarket, Oshawa or Brampton, only to be told there was no judge available or there was no courtroom available. In fact, there was a number of times I went to courts ready to start a trial, and they would say that there was a judge available, but there was no courtroom. Canadians also need to understand that, when they walk into a courtroom and there is a superior court judge sitting there, the person who is sitting on the bench was appointed by the federal government. Every other component of the system, all of the infrastructure, is the responsibility of the provincial government: the desks, the chairs, all of the staff in that room, and the buildings, including the number of courtrooms in those buildings. There are people who are in the trenches, and they know better. Conservative lawyers become Conservative politicians because they can make allegations without facts to support them. The fact of the matter is that the provincial governments are not committing the resources necessary to make sure that our judicial system functions at its maximum capacity. We have more judicial capacity in Canada right now than we have had at any time in my entire career, so I would like to hear more from the Minister of Justice on the complexity of the court system and the delays that are inherent in it because of these different factors.
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