Bastarache Commission Report on Judicial Nominations in Quebec

Michel Bastarache, a former Supreme Court of Canada Justice, submitted his official report yesterday into allegations of influence peddling in the nomination of municipal and provincial court judges in Quebec.

The commission that he led had been created by Quebec Premier Jean Charest after the province’s former Justice Minister Marc Bellemare alleged that he been forced to name three judges to the bench at the behest of Quebec Liberal Party organizers and fundraisers.

Bastarache rejected the allegations but he did document gaps in the judicial nomination process in Quebec in terms of transparency, writing that the process was vulnerable to all manner of interventions and open to potential partisan favouritism.

He recommends that the current vetting system be removed from the Justice Department. In its place, a new law should be introduced to create an independent secretariat for judicial nominations, to be composed of 30 members, including judges, lawyers and members of the public. For each nomination, there would be a panel of 7 members.

The secretariat would not answer to the Justice Department and would report to the legislature. Representatives of the public would be selected by the National Assembly.