OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney has nominated Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal to the Supreme Court of Canada, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Sheilah Martin last month.Carney announced the nomination Monday, making Joyal his first pick for the country’s top court since becoming prime minister.“Throughout his career, Chief Justice Joyal has demonstrated the integrity, experience, and sound judgment that service on our highest court demands,” Carney said in a statement.“I am confident that he will serve Canadians with distinction.”Joyal will replace Martin, who retired from the Supreme Court on May 30. By convention, her seat was expected to go to a jurist from Western or Northern Canada. Joyal has served as chief justice of Manitoba’s superior trial court since 2011, after first being appointed associate chief justice in 2009 and a judge of the court in 2007. .Before joining the bench, he worked as a Crown attorney at Manitoba Justice, federal Crown counsel at the Department of Justice and in private practice in Winnipeg. He was first appointed chief justice of the Manitoba court by former prime minister Stephen Harper. His name has circulated for years as a possible Supreme Court candidate. Joyal was previously considered for the high court in 2017, but later confirmed he withdrew his application because of his wife’s health issues after confidential details of that application were leaked to the media. Joyal has also been regarded as a leading contender for the western vacancy because of his bilingualism and long judicial experience, at a time when the pool of eligible candidates from Western and Northern Canada has been narrowed by the federal requirement that Supreme Court appointees be functionally bilingual.Joyal is expected to appear before a parliamentary committee in the coming days for questioning on his nomination before the appointment is formalized.The Supreme Court of Canada is made up of nine judges. By law, three seats are reserved for Quebec, while convention has typically allocated three seats to Ontario, two to Western Canada and one to Atlantic Canada.There is currently one supreme court judge from Alberta, Mary T. Moreau who has been serving in her role since November of 2023.
