Prime Minister Stephen Harper's circumvention of the all-party committee his government set up to vet a short list of candidates for a Supreme Court of Canada vacancy continues to send shock waves through the nation's legal community.
P&P has lamented the fact that this province has never had a resident sit on the Supreme Court of Canada and that should have been addressed this time around. However, if there was not a qualified person from this province for the job than what can you say. Of course that decision, the one about qualifications, was not decided by the all-party vetting committee but by the Prime Minister himself.
One member of the committee, NDP justice critic Joe Comartin, is speaking publicly about Minister Hearn's role and the implications for future Supreme Court appointments. Under a vetting procedure created over the past few years by successive federal governments, the identities of judges considered for Supreme Court vacancies are strictly confidential.
Of course considering the mess that the provincial government has made of Memorial University's presidential search it would appear that both levels of government have a lot to learn about interfering in processes that they should keep their noses out of.
No comments:
Post a Comment