Canada SCOC Nominees Auditions

SCOC Nominees to Face MP Questions
Jim Brown, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, February 20, 2006

OTTAWA -- In a historic change, nominees to the Supreme Court of Canada will face questions from an all-party committee of MPs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday.

But MPs won't have the power to veto candidates under the new process -- the prime minister will still have the last word.

Harper, outlining his reforms at a news conference, sent mixed signals on what he hopes to accomplish.

He insisted his plan won't unduly politicize the selection of a new judge to fill the one existing vacancy on the nine-member high court.

In fact, he said, the approach he's taking will amount to "the least partisan process in history."

At the same time, however, he declared that his preference is to find a judge who will "apply the law rather than make it" -- a common theme among right-leaning politicians who have long railed about liberal-minded judicial activism.

The main point Harper returned to again and again was the need for greater transparency in deciding who sits at the top of the judicial pyramid.

"For the first time in the history of Canada, the next candidate for the Supreme Court will have to answer questions that will be posed by the House," he said.

"The nominee will speak to Canadians and Canadians, through their elected representatives, will be able to learn more about the candidate."

The prime minister said he will announce a nominee on Thursday to fill the current vacancy, and a special Commons committee will hold three hours of televised hearings next Monday.

The new judge is to come from a short list of three names prepared for the Liberal government just before the election campaign which brought Harper to power.

The political parties in the Commons will have until Wednesday to name MPs to the new committee. Harper said the committee will reflect the makeup of the Commons so that no party will have a majority.

The nominee for justice will make a formal statement to the MPs before questions begin.

Constitutionally, the prime minister has the last word on selecting justices for the high court and that won't change. But Harper said he will take the committee's deliberations into account in making his final decision, which is to be announced March 1.

The spring term of the Supreme Court opens April 10, and Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin made it clear she wants the one vacancy on the high court filled well before then so the new justice is ready to assume a full workload.

While some, including McLachlin, have said grilling potential justices risks politicizing the bench, Harper said the new process will make the appointment more transparent.

An initial list of six candidates was handed to an advisory panel made up of MPs from all parties -- including Vic Toews, who now is justice minister -- as well as retired judges, lawyers, academics and lay people.

That panel whittled the six down to a short list of three just before the federal election was called in November and Harper will pick from that trio.

Harper says that since those nominees are acceptable to both Liberals and his government, there is unlikely to be controversy about the final choice.

The question of whether to institute public hearings for judicial appointees in Canada has been debated for years. Opponents fear the process might become turn into an American-style political fight.

Former prime minister Paul Martin toyed with the idea of public hearings when he was in power but backed away in the end, partly because of adamant opposition from his justice minister, Irwin Cotler.

The short list remains a secret, but legal scholars have speculated freely on who might make the best Supreme Court judge.

Among those often mentioned are Justices Georgina Jackson and Robert Richards of Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, Marc Monin of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, and Barbara Hamilton and Richard Scott of Manitoba Court of Appeal.

By tradition the judge who replaces Major will come from one of the Prairie provinces.

© Canadian Press 2006