Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and three other provincial leaders are calling on the federal government to give provinces a formal role in appointing judges to Canada\u2019s superior trial courts, appeal courts and the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n
Smith, along with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, has written to Prime Minister Mark Carney requesting a \u201cformal, meaningful role\u201d for provinces in judicial appointments and calling for federal appointments to be made from candidates \u201crecommended and approved by the relevant province.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The joint request builds on Alberta\u2019s earlier push for judicial appointment reform. In a Jan. 23 letter to the prime minister, Smith wrote that Alberta \u201cwill not agree to provide the necessary funding to support any new judicial positions in the province until such engagement and collaboration are provided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, judicial appointments are made through advisory committees that assess applicants and provide non-binding recommendations to the federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current process does not give provincial governments an equal voice in appointing justices,\u201d Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery said.<\/p>\n
In the joint release, Smith said provincial involvement would better reflect local needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cProvinces are responsible for keeping communities safe and upholding the rule of law. When provinces are at the table, decisions better reflect the needs of the people they serve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The premiers are also seeking access to the same information on judicial candidates as the federal government as part of what they describe as a more transparent and consistent process.<\/p>\n
The multi-province push follows earlier calls from Alberta. In a Feb. 3 statement, Smith said she had written to Carney about vacancies on the Alberta Court of King\u2019s Bench, the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada, and called for \u201cmeaningful reform\u201d to the appointment process.<\/p>\n
Smith also said Alberta wants the federal government to relax bilingualism requirements for federal judicial appointments, saying they \u201cdo not reflect Canada\u2019s broader linguistic diversity in Western Canada and alienates Albertans and western Canadians alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are simply asking for a formal and meaningful role in the judicial appointment process that would boost public confidence in the administration of justice, support national unity within Alberta, and ensure judicial decision-making reflects the values and expectations of Albertans,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Amery said Alberta has proposed a Special Advisory Committee \u201cconsisting of four non-partisan experts from Alberta and the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said Alberta currently has three vacancies on the Court of King\u2019s Bench and that the planned retirement of Supreme Court of Canada Justice Sheilah Martin \u201cwill give rise to a vacancy\u201d open to candidates from Alberta.<\/p>\n
She proposed a four-member advisory committee, with two members appointed by Alberta and two by the federal government. The committee would \u201cassess candidates on a non-partisan basis\u201d and ensure potential candidates \u201chave the necessary expertise to serve in these important roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter also asks the federal government to \u201cmake practical and reasonable changes to relax bilingualism requirements for federal judicial appointments,\u201d stating that the current approach \u201cdoes not reflect Canada\u2019s broader linguistic diversity\u201d and raises concerns about \u201caccess to justice and equitable regional representation in judicial appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford said the change is needed because \u201cit is past time that provinces have a say in the appointment of the judges making decisions that directly impact the people we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legault said the proposal would strengthen \u201cprovincial autonomy and promote an open and cooperative federalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moe said Saskatchewan should have \u201ca meaningful role in selecting the judges who serve\u201d the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and three other provincial leaders are calling on the federal government to give provinces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-557669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}