Federal Government Announces Members of Panel to Select New Supreme Court of Canada Justice

The Canadian government announced this week which Members of Parliament will sit on the panel to advise on filling the vacancy at the Supreme Court of Canada that comes as the result of the resignation of the Honourable Mr. Justice Morris Fish.

The members of the panel are:

• Mr. Jacques Gourde, Conservative Party of Canada
• Ms. Shelly Glover, Conservative Party of Canada
• Mr. Robert Goguen, Conservative Party of Canada
• Ms. Françoise Boivin, New Democratic Party of Canada
• Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal Party of Canada

According to the government:

"The selection process will proceed as follows:

• The members of the Selection Panel will meet to review the résumés provided by each candidate as well as a number of reported judgments and publications.
  
• The members of the Selection Panel will also consult with the Chief Justice of Canada, the Chief Justice of Quebec, the Attorney General of Quebec, the Barreau du Québec, the Canadian Bar Association and, at their discretion, other prominent members or organizations of the legal community.
  
• All deliberations by panel members and consultations with third parties will be confidential.
  
• The Selection Panel will provide an unranked list of three qualified candidates to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice for their consideration.
  
• The Prime Minister and Minister of Justice will select a nominee from that list.
  
• The nominee will appear at a public hearing of an ad hoc parliamentary committee, a process that was first established for the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Marshall E. Rothstein in 2006 and repeated with the appointments of the Honourable Madam Justice Karakatsanis and the Honourable Mr. Justice Moldaver in 2011 and the Honourable Mr. Justice Richard Wagner in 2012."