John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca), which funded lawyers for citizens who asserted their Charter freedoms in the Gateway v. Manitoba litigation.Premier Danielle Smith is taking a lot of heat over her proposal that Alberta should have a greater say in who serves on the Alberta Court of King’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal, courts which handle criminal, civil, family, and constitutional cases. Public trust in the judiciary, particularly in Alberta, is justifiably at an all-time low.Canadian judges routinely grant bail to violent criminals, while peaceful protester Tamara Lich spent a total of 49 days in jail before her trial. Unsurprisingly, Danielle Smith and other premiers find themselves wishing that they could direct or guide our judges to protect citizens from criminals who threaten public safety. Chief Justice Richard Wagner has declared himself to be “proud” of the Supreme Court of Canada being “progressive.” Wagner’s politician-style tours of the country have been described by the Canadian Press as a “roadshow.” Though not yet retired from the court, Wagner already has his image captured in a bronze bust valued at $18,000. In 2022, he publicly denounced Freedom Convoy as “anarchy” and “hostage-taking,” so people like Tamara Lich and Chris Barber cannot get a fair hearing if their case ever reaches the Supreme Court.The problem is not limited to one judge. In Hansman v. Neufeld, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis asserted as a fact that gender encompasses “a spectrum of gender identities, modes of expression, and related terminology, all of which continue to evolve.” Her progressive colleague, Sheila Martin, referred to a woman as “a person with a vagina” in R. v. Kruk, a ruling endorsed by five other Supreme Court Justices.Since 2023, only English-French bilingual lawyers may be appointed to the Supreme Court (with other kinds of bilingualism deemed worthless or irrelevant). This requirement effectively excludes many highly qualified lawyers and judges from English-speaking Canada, particularly Western Canada.While fewer than 1% of Canadians donate to political parties, one-fifth of judges have done so, with three-quarters donating to the Liberal Party..When asked to defend the Charter rights and freedoms that were violated by lockdowns, numerous Canadians cited the flawed media narrative in their court rulings rather than basing their decisions on the evidence placed before them in court. For example, in Gateway v. Manitoba, the judge completely ignored the expert report placed before the court by Manitoba’s former Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Joel Kettner. Dr. Kettner’s expert report eviscerated Manitoba’s arguments in favour of lockdowns. Rather than providing reasons for rejecting Dr. Kettner’s report, the judge instead pretended that this expert report didn’t exist and did not refer to it in his ruling. With rulings like these, how can Canadians still trust their courts?By way of a seven-person “Judicial Advisory Committee” in each province, the federal government actively pursues racial quotas in the appointment of judges, ostensibly to reflect Canada’s diversity. The vast majority of this Committee’s members are woke progressives who champion “equity, diversity, inclusion.” Only one of the seven members is appointed by the Alberta government; another by Alberta’s sitting judges, and the remaining five by the federal government, the Alberta Law Society, and the Canadian Bar Association.The Alberta Law Society forces Alberta lawyers to take a political indoctrination course about “colonization” and “decolonization” as a condition of being allowed to practice law. Other Law Societies across Canada are equally woke. The Canadian Bar Association takes left-wing positions on political issues like gun control and abortion that have nothing to do with lawyers or with the practice of law. If this group were more honest, it would call itself the Canadian Liberal-NDP Lawyers Association. The Alberta judges appointed through this Judicial Advisory Committee process do not reflect the values and expectations of Albertans. Those who support the status quo argue that changing the judicial appointments process somehow threatens judicial independence. Nonsense! They support the status quo because it ensures the continued appointment of woke, progressive judges like Wagner, who will reliably champion equity-diversity-inclusion ideology.In addition to the problem of judges following ideology rather than the rule of law, it usually takes years to obtain a court ruling. Whether they are plaintiffs and defendants, victims of crime or those accused of committing crimes, or Canadians asserting their Charter rights and freedoms, citizens must wait for a year (or two, three, or four years) just to get a judgment. .Canadian judges have only very minimal staff support. In contrast, many American judges have law clerks working for them: full-time staff lawyers who enable judges to render their rulings in weeks or months, rather than in years.Canada’s federal government appoints and pays judges, but provincial governments are responsible for the administration of the courts, including court infrastructure and support services.If Alberta provided one full-time lawyer to work for each of the 106 federally appointed judges (17 Court of Appeal, 89 Court of King’s Bench), many decisions would be issued in weeks or months, rather than years. Providing law clerks to 106 Alberta judges would cost less than $20 million per year, out of a $75 billion annual budget.Albertans (and all Canadians) deserve better judges, and Premier Danielle Smith is right to demand change. However, her threat to withhold some court funding should Ottawa not agree to a better appointments process is ill-advised.Alberta could immediately budget $20 million to provide Alberta’s judges with full-time staff lawyers, resulting in Albertans receiving judgments in weeks or months, rather than years. This new funding would neither solve nor exacerbate the problem of ideological bias amongst judges. It would, however, see Albertans receiving court rulings in a timelier manner.John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca), which funded lawyers for citizens who asserted their Charter freedoms in the Gateway v. Manitoba litigation.
