Federal court slams liberals for failing to fill judicial vacancies

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OTTAWA — A federal court ruling says the government is failing Canadians by neglecting to fill an “unreasonably large” number of judicial vacancies, and ordered it to appoint judges “within a reasonable time frame.”

Federal Court Judge Henry S. Brown said nothing had changed nine months after the Supreme Court chief justice wrote to the government accusing the government of a critical shortage of judges in what appeared to be a slap in the face to the government.

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“The situation established by the Chief Justice of Canada and the Judicial Council of Canada is so important and so serious that, in the Court's view, it cannot simply be ignored,” the judge wrote in a decision published on February 13.

“Unfortunately, there is no reason to expect the court to change the situation without judicial intervention. (Prime Minister and Minister of Justice) have not provided any evidence to show that the Prime Minister has not yet rectified the “horrendous”, “untenable” and “crisis” situation caused by the impermissibly high number of vacancies, and has now not filled two posts. successive Ministers of Justice”.

His decision was the result of a lawsuit filed by Ottawa-based human rights lawyers Yavar Hamid and Nicholas Pope asking the government to fill about 80 vacant judgeships within months.

The judge dismissed the request, but instead issued a statement that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice must fill current and future vacancies “within a reasonable period of time.”

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The decision did not specify what that deadline was, but left it open for the parties to return to court in the future if they believe the government has not respected the spirit of the decision.

Justice Brown also said the government should reduce vacancies in the federal and High Court systems from the current 75 to the “mid-40s”, the 2016 level.

“With great respect, the Court finds that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice are just treading water. They failed to take the actions requested by the Chief Justice of Canada and the Judicial Council of Canada,” Brown wrote.

“And with all due respect, they have failed everyone who trusted them to exercise their authority to fill these vacancies in a timely manner. And all those who sought timely justice in the Supreme Courts and federal courts in Canada have failed,” he added.

Hamid Law's lawyer, Nicholas Pope, said in an interview that he was very pleased with the court's decision, and expressed regret that he had to go to court in the first place.

“I wish we weren't here. “I don't understand why we are here, and I don't think the court understood why we are here,” he said. “Let's say we might bring in another application if vacancies aren't down to 40 in a year.”

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The judge quoted extensively from a letter Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May to describe the current crisis in Canada's judiciary.

In his letter, Wagner denounced the government's “inability” to fill judicial vacancies in a “timely manner”, saying the situation was “untenable” and leading to a “crisis”.

Wagner also noted that the shortage of judges, combined with scarce resources in the court system since the Brown decision, has led to excessive delays and the dismissal of simple cases that can last for years.

For example, as of May, 22 per cent of criminal cases pending in Alberta's Crown Court had exceeded the 30-month deadline, making them vulnerable to extradition.

“Given this obvious fact and the predicament we find ourselves in, the government's inertia regarding vacancies and the lack of satisfactory explanations for these delays is troubling,” Wagner wrote.

Brown concluded the same in his ruling and questioned why the situation remained the same nearly nine months after Wagner's letter.

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“These vacancies undoubtedly pose serious and serious challenges to the operation of our courts, access to justice, timely determination of serious criminal and civil cases, and other consequences,” he wrote.

Speaking to reporters, Justice Minister Arif Virani touted his appointment record as “twice as fast” as the Harper Conservatives (who were last in power in 2015). He also said filling judicial vacancies is his “top priority” and is doing so at a “record pace.”

He also noted that Brown's decision ignores the fact that the Liberals have added 115 judgeships since coming to power in late 2015.

But it may seem that his government has ignored the case and the Federal Court case, except for several attempts to throw out Hamid's evidence, all to no avail.

“(The Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice) have provided no basis for their decision to reject the application to fill these judicial vacancies,” Brown wrote.

Virani did not respond to questions about whether he was considering an appeal of Brown's decision.

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