Choosing Supreme Court Judges

For more than 25 years, since the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians representing a wide spectrum of views have been urging reform of the appointments process for members of Canada’s highest court. Paul Martin promised to make such changes before he became prime minister and repeated that commitment after he stepped into Jean Chrétien’s shoes in November 2003. Nevertheless, no changes have been made so far, and Canada continues to be wedded to a 19th-century form of executive paternalism that has long been abandoned by most Western democracies and is in the process of being radically changed in England, the oft-cited source of Canada’s current system.

Canada’s anachronistic approach should trouble all Canadians concerned with transparency and accountability in the appointment of judges at all levels, whether federal or provincial. Transparency and accountability are of overriding importance in appointments to the Supreme Court of...