Oh My, There's A Leak

Harper's Supreme Court shortlist leak draws fire

Jim Brown, The Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2006

OTTAWA -- Stephen Harper may have got more than he bargained for in promising to bring openness and transparency to the selection of judges for the Supreme Court of Canada.

As the new Conservative prime minister pondered his first nomination to the high court, his short list of candidates was already in the public domain Wednesday.

The names are:

- Marshall Rothstein of the Federal Court of Appeal, considered by many to be the front-runner in the unexpectedly public horse race.

- Peter MacKinnon, president of the University of Saskatchewan and a former dean of law at the same school, but a man with no judicial experience.

- Constance Hunt, a former resource law specialist and onetime dean of the University of Calgary law school, who now sits on the Alberta Court of Appeal.

The list, drawn up under the former Liberal government, was a closely guarded secret for months. But it leaked to the media within hours of Harper's disclosure Monday that he was about to make a choice.

The official announcement is to come Thursday.

The nominee will then face an unprecedented public hearing next Monday before an all-party committee of MPs before ascending to the bench.

Harper's's decision to hold such a hearing had already generated controversy and sparked fears that he was politicizing the judiciary.

But some in the legal community were more upset by the leak of the short list, a development that they say could deter well-qualified candidates from coming forward in future.

"It's one thing to appear before a parliamentary committee,'' said Henry Brown, an Ottawa lawyer and Mulroney-era Tory cabinet aide who now practises frequently before the Supreme Court.

"It's something else to get involved in a public shooting gallery that produces winners and non-winners. A lot of good candidates might not want to get involved in that.''

Patricia Hughes, the current dean of law at the University of Calgary, termed it unfortunate that the list had got out.

"I would not like to see this become the norm, that we start throwing out names publicly,'' said Hughes.

`Are we trying to say it's a sort of election? I don't find it to be a very elegant way to select a member of the top court of Canada.''

Not everyone agreed with that assessment.

Chris Axworthy a former NDP attorney general of Saskatchewan who ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals in the recent election, was unruffled by the leak.

"People who want to be justices of the Supreme Court of Canada should be willing to stick their necks out once in a while,'' said Axworthy. "If you're interested in the job maybe you have to let the world know.''

Aides to Harper say it wasn't the Prime Minister's Office that leaked the list. It was their intention to make only the final choice public, sparing the other contenders from media and political scrutiny.

© The Canadian Press