Canadians should have full confidence in their judicial system. Maintaining this confidence requires that there be an accountable, transparent and fiscally responsible process for the handling of complaints against federally appointed judges.
Yesterday, on behalf of the Government of Canada, Senator Marc Gold reintroduced proposed legislative amendments to the Judges Act that aim to strengthen the judicial complaints process, which was originally established 50 years ago. While there have been updates to the process over the years, it is time to fully reform how complaints are dealt with.
The reintroduced bill would amend and streamline the process for more serious complaints, where removal from the bench could be an outcome. The current process is cumbersome, costly and can be prolonged for years. It needs to be updated in order to make the system less expensive and time-consuming.
These amendments would also address the current process’ shortcomings by imposing mandatory sanctions on a judge when a complaint of misconduct is found to be justified, but to not be serious enough to warrant removal from office. Such sanctions would include counselling, continuing education and reprimands.
The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) is responsible for administering the judicial conduct process. This legislation would require that the CJC include the number of complaints received and how they were resolved in its public annual report.
Public consultations conducted by the federal government in 2016 informed the work on developing these amendments, with the goal of enacting reforms while respecting the constitutional principle of judicial independence.