Federal judge says Ottawa must address 'significant' problem of vacant court seats – Winnipeg Free Press

OTTAWA – A federal court judge says Ottawa must act quickly to reduce a “critical” level of judicial vacancies.

Justice Henry Brown ruled in a case by an Ottawa human rights lawyer who asked the court to direct the prime minister and justice minister to appoint additional judges.

The case was filed last June, a month after Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote to Trudeau expressing concern over the number of vacancies and asking him to address the issue.

Brown said in the hard-hitting decision that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Arif Virani Wagner failed to do what they asked and failed Canadians who trust the justice system.

There were 85 vacancies when Wagner wrote in May, 79 in June and 75 on February 1.

Brown called the situation “unfortunate” and “horrendous” and said the government must move to halve the number of vacancies.

“Neither the Prime Minister nor two successive Justice Ministers have corrected this predicament in the nine months since the request of our Chief Justice of Canada and the Judicial Council of Canada,” Brown wrote.

“With great respect, the court finds that the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister are simply treading water.”

Virani said Tuesday he was reviewing the decision, but he made it his personal responsibility as justice minister to resolve the issue.

Virani was appointed to the cabinet last July, replacing David Lametti, who held the role for more than four years.

“To Canadians, under my watch, I've been in this role for six and a half months. So far, I have appointed 64 judges,” he said.

“There's more to come.”

Virani said this was a “record pace” of appointments, with the average number of appointments under the previous Conservative government being 65 a year.

He said the Liberals also increased the number of judge positions by more than 100 in response to requests.

He said the slow pace of court proceedings was not only due to a lack of judges, but also to insufficient funding for provincial court staff and operational costs.

Wagner's letter acknowledged the problem, though he said the problem of vacant judges should be easier to deal with.

Lametti and the Liberals appointed a total of 100 judges last year, according to Virani.

Both he and Brown acknowledge that more vacancies have opened up as they have been filled.

Virani would not say whether he thinks the government can respond to Brown's call to cut the number of vacancies to around 40.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 13, 2024.