The Conservative government has named three of its former political allies to federal judgeships, despite a record of criticizing past Liberal regimes for their patronage appointments and having been elected on promises to improve government accountability.

Kirk Sisson, a member of the board of Conservative MP Bob Mills's riding association in Red Deer, Alta., was among 11 judicial appointments announced by the Harper government late Friday.

Mr. Sisson was active, too, in the former provincial riding association of Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day in Red Deer, where the new judge will sit on the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench.

The Harper government also appointed to Ontario's Superior Court, longtime Conservative Alexander Sosna, an Oshawa lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in the 1984 federal election.

Promoted to the post of senior judge in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario was Superior Court Justice Stephen Glithero, a president of the Progressive Conservative riding association in Cambridge before his appointment to the bench by the Mulroney government in 1992.

The appointments will fuel growing criticism that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doing just what he accused the former Martin and Chretien governments of doing: Using federal posts as plums to reward political friends and supporters.

Mr. Harper's first appointment to the coveted $231,100-per-annum judgeships last June was Richard Bell, co-chairman of the Conservatives' federal election campaign in New Brunswick.

"This is a government that campaigned on accountability, but there is no accountability here," argued political scientist Peter Russell, who has studied political patronage for decades.

He said the secrecy which shrouds the present appointment scheme permits the government to pick its friends for the bench.

"You and I and the rest of Canada can't judge the merits of these appointments," he said. "We know the government is going to say: 'They are very, very able people,' but can you imagine them saying anything else? We want to see what an independent advisory committee advises the government about their qualifications. That would be accountability."

Justice Minister Vic Toews responded that "all candidates that I put forward were identified as meritorious by a non-partisan committee," which vets applicants for the bench as not recommended, recommended or highly recommended.

Critics have long contended the fatal flaw in the federal system is that it allows the government of the day to appoint its partisans from a huge pool of "recommended" candidates, over the heads of better qualified candidates.

Yet one Conservative pointed out the Harper government last month appointed a prominent Liberal to the Ontario Superior Court, Bay Street lawyer Julie Thorburn, who co-chaired Sheila Copps's run for the Liberal leadership.

"The Liberals only appointed qualified Liberals to the bench, but the Conservatives are appointing qualified Liberals and Conservatives," said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified.

Mr. Sisson's ex-law partner Chris Warren, an Alberta Tory, said Mr. Sisson's politics were not the main reason for his appointment.

"I don't think that was the major criterion," he said. "Kirk has tremendous people skills and is very patient, and I'm sure he will be an excellent judge."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006