Library Boy: Quebec Government Changes Judicial Nomination Process

The Quebec government announced this week that it will change the way provincial judges are named.

Under new interim rules, an independent three-member selection committee will be created to identify qualified candidates and make recommendations to the minister of justice:

"The interim process excludes the political staff of the premier and minister of justice from the nominations. This step is to prevent these individuals from interfering in any way whatsoever in the selection process for appointing judges. Furthermore, those in charge of the nomination process will no longer be able to disclose the candidate’s allegiance to a political party during the nomination process."

"The selection committee’s recommendations will be sent to the minister of justice, who will then make a single justified selection and submit it not just to the premier but also to the council of ministers for approval. This will ensure transparency of the process."

The changes come in the wake of the Bastarache Commission report last month that looked into allegations of political influence peddling in certain judicial nominations in Quebec.

The commission of inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michel Bastarache, concluded that the allegations could not be proven but underlined many weaknesses in the way judges of provincial jurisdiction were named in Quebec.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the subject include: