|
Cut patronage in judiciary, lawyers urge October 31, 2005 Politicians and their partisan operatives should be barred from applying to join the federal judiciary for at least two years after they leave the political arena, the Canadian Bar Association recommends. At a scheduled appearance tomorrow before a special Commons subcommittee delving into political patronage in the appointment of federal judges, representatives of the 34,000-lawyer group will urge MPs to implement a "cooling-off period" for judicial candidates from the political sphere. Parliament should require cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, the Senate, or a provincial or territorial legislature, their partisan political employees or employees of political parties, to wait for two years before they can apply for a judgeship, the association urges in a written submission. The group calls it "paradoxical" that former cabinet ministers are banned from even "selling pencils" to the government for two years after they depart, but not from taking immediate appointments to the elite 1,100-member ranks of the federal judiciary. The coveted posts are seen by many lawyers as the pinnacle of a legal career, in addition to an annual salary of $219,400, until age 75. "Change is required to restore public confidence," the association says. "Recent events have caused the public to question the extent to which political patronage influences federal judicial appointments, and whether intervention of Parliament would bring more objectivity and transparency to the process. Canadians expect, and are entitled to have, judges who are well qualified and independent of political influence. If judicial candidates were intimately involved in the political sphere close to the time when they were appointed, public perception of patronage would be heightened." Halifax lawyer Brian Tabor, the association's president, added that political experience can be valuable on the bench. "What we are trying to do is take away the perception that political connections make the appointment," Mr. Tabor explained. "You want to try to secure ... a belief that if you go before a court, that the judge sitting and hearing your case will be the best judge that one can get in this country." The bar association doesn't highlight specific appointments that ran afoul of the proposed two-year cooling-off period. However, the Liberals have appointed a number of lawyers within months of them being engaged in partisan activities. Last year, for example, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler was accused of cronyism by the opposition after he appointed Yves de Montigny to the Federal Court, less than six months after Mr. de Montigny stepped down as Mr. Cotler's chief of staff. The federal Liberals also appointed former New Bruns-wick Liberal finance minister Edmond Blanchard to the Federal Court in 2000. In Alberta, John Gill, co-chairman of the federal Liberal election-readiness campaign in 2004, was appointed in 2005 to the province's Court of Queen's Bench. Vital Ouellette, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in the Alberta provincial elections of 1997 and 2001, was appointed in 2002 to the Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton. Bryan Mahoney, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in the 1997 and 2000 federal elections, was appointed in 2001 to the federal bench in Calgary. The Commons subcommittee is the result of a motion sponsored by Bloc Quebecois justice critic Richard Marceau last June that was pushed through with Tory and NDP support. Its aim is to make suggestions to improve the process of appointing federal judges, with a focus on eradicating political patronage. Mr. Cotler denies patronage is a factor. The subcommittee was struck in the wake of Quebec Liberal organizer Benoit Corbeil's unproven allegations during the Quebec sponsorship inquiry this year that "seven or eight" Liberal lawyers in Quebec were named to the bench after volunteering for the Liberals in the 2000 election. Jacob Ziegel, a University of Toronto emeritus law professor who has studied Canadian judicial appointments, said a two-year cooling-off period could have a restraining effect on what he sees as "quite scandalous" patronage. "But it's not the real answer," Mr. Ziegel argued. Instead, he suggested the non-partisan committees that currently advise the justice minister on suitable judicial candidates should be given the clout to craft a binding shortlist of three or four candidates for each vacancy. The federal government is presently free to pick its own partisans from a large pool of "recommended" candidates. A Canwest News Service analysis this spring found that more than 60 per
cent of lawyers appointed since 2000 by the Liberals to federal judgeships
in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Federal Court donated
to the Liberal party in the three to five years before they were appointed,
while few donated to other parties. |