Ottawa appoints 15 new judges to bench amid complaints from Alberta

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The Liberal government has appointed its first judges since coming to power seven months ago, after a senior Alberta judge complained publicly that the courts were growing desperate, and as vacancies nationwide approach the peak numbers seen in the Harper years.

Of the 15 people appointed, 10 are women, in contrast to the decade-long Harper era, in which just 30 per cent of judges chosen were female. All three of Friday's appointments to powerful appeal courts – two in Alberta, and one to the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa – went to women.

But the appointments barely made a dent for the province with the most vacancies, according to Chief Justice Neil Wittmann of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench. He told The Globe in April that the lack of judicial appointments had left his court in "desperate shape." Of the six Alberta appointments on Friday, two were promotions from his court to the Court of Appeal, leaving the Court of Queen's Bench with a net gain of just two judges – of which one was filling a vacancy from last summer.

"Marginal at best," he said in an interview on Friday of the effect of the appointments.

In Calgary, he said, anyone trying to book a family or civil court trial of more than five days must wait 97 weeks, until April, 2018; for a short trial, the wait is 42 weeks. In Edmonton, long trials and short are being booked 66 weeks away. Criminal trials of more than five days are being booked 55 weeks ahead in Calgary and Edmonton, and nearly as many for short trials.

Liberal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has promised to make the appointment process more transparent and increase gender and racial diversity.

"As promised, the Government has moved forward on filling urgent judicial vacancies by drawing on existing lists of recommended candidates," spokeswoman Joanne Ghiz said in an e-mail.

"The Government will be considering ways to strengthen the judicial appointments process, guided by the principles of openness, transparency, and merit. It is also committed to ensuring that Canada's judiciary truly reflects the face of Canada. Significant reforms of the judicial appointments process will take time, and require appropriate consultations, including with the judiciary, the legal community and the general public."

Chief Justice Wittmann said that while he supports the government's goals, "My plea to her in April was … we can't stop the system while we're waiting for a new system. Because the whole thing turns into chaos if you leave it long enough."

He said he is pleased by the quality of the appointments, but does not understand the long delay: "I don't see how it can be that difficult to do it in a timely manner."

Deciding who goes on the bench is one of the most important and under-appreciated exercises of government power, legal observers say. (The federal justice department appoints about 850 full-time judges to the superior and appeal courts of provinces, federal court and tax court.)

The Conservative government overhauled the process in its first year in office, putting a police representative on a committee that screens candidates, and giving the government's appointees on the screening committee a voting majority. The Liberals have promised to revamp the process and make it more transparent – but have not yet begun long-promised discussions with the legal community. And a large number of the screening committees no longer have any members, although Alberta's does, and met as recently as last month.

Alberta had 11 of the country's 49 full-time judicial vacancies before Friday's appointments, of which seven were on the Court of Queen's Bench (out of 59 full-time judges), the province's top trial court. During the Harper years (2006-15), the number of vacancies at times hovered in the 50s, in part because of a laborious vetting process aimed at excluding anyone deemed by the Conservative Party to have left-wing sympathies.

"Before today, there were tremendous backlogs, and lengthy trial delays, and judges were overworked," Edmonton criminal defence lawyer D'Arcy Depoe said. "So the appointments are obviously very welcome."

Apart from appointments in Alberta and to the Federal Court of Appeal, the government also named five judges to the Ontario Superior Court, two to the British Columbia Supreme Court and one to the Quebec Superior Court.