Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould‘s office said Tuesday that new judicial appointments in Alberta are “imminent,” just hours after two Conservative members of Parliament publicly launched a petition demanding that the minister speed up the appointments process.
An announcement about the new judges “could come as soon as this week,” according to the minister’s office. No additional details were made available.
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Earlier Tuesday, Conservative MPs Michelle Rempel and Michael Cooper were in Calgary for the public launch of an official online Parliamentary petition calling on the Liberal government “to fill the judicial vacancies immediately.”
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The petition was initiated late last week by Scott Hamilton, a relative of murder victims Sara Baillie and Taliyah Marsman. Baillie was found dead inside her northwest Calgary home on July 11, 2016, sparking an Alberta-wide Amber Alert for her five-year-old daughter, Taliyah. Three days later, Calgary police found the child’s body just outside of the city limits.
Edward Downey of Calgary is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty to both charges. He is currently scheduled to stand trial before a jury in late November.
Rempel and Cooper, who were joined by Hamilton on Tuesday morning, alleged that Downey’s trial is one of many at risk of being stayed or dismissed if the court process unfolds too slowly due to a lack of judges on the bench.
“The Prime Minister and Minister of Justice need to their job and support Canada’s victims of crime by appointing these judges,” said Rempel.
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Wilson-Raybould announced a new process for judicial appointments in 2016, with a focus on “transparency, merit, and diversity.”
The minister’s office maintains she has been filling vacancies at a reasonable pace. She made 100 appointments or elevations in 2017, and there have been several more announced since January.
“These aren’t just done on the back napkin,” said Liberal MP Marco Mendicino, who serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice.
“We have judicial advisory committees who screen (the candidates) very rigorously so there’s a lot of work that goes into it.”
As of last month, there were still 56 judicial vacancies across Canada.
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The Liberals have been under intense pressure for well over a year to fill those vacancies and speed up the pace of trials across Canada. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled via the Jordan decision that a criminal trial cannot be unreasonably delayed to the point that it violates an accused’s Charter rights.
The high court imposed a ceiling of 30 months for a case to make its way through superior courts, and 18 months for provincial courts. Hundreds of court cases — some involving extremely serious crimes like murder and sexual assault — have been stayed as a result.
Downey’s trial this November is expected to take place one month shy of the 30-month time limit.
Cooper, a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said Tuesday that he would also be moving a notice of motion requesting that the committee examine the impact judicial vacancies have had on Canada’s justice system.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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