Debates of Feb. 12th, 2007

Judicial Appointments

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's new government will continue to appoint judges based on merit and legal excellence with input from a broad range of stakeholders. In fact, as is known, the government has announced that it is getting representatives from the law enforcement community.

It is odd that the Leader of the Opposition would consider members of the law enforcement community to be rigid ideologues. We happen to believe they are people who know something about the justice system and have something to add. We think it is a good thing that they are being added to the judicial appointment process.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign last year, the Prime Minister said that he would never have “absolute power” because we have the courts to ensure a balance of power. The Prime Minister decided to upset that balance and is appointing his ideological friends to the committees that select judges. He is changing these committees by ensuring that his friends make up the majority.

Will the Prime Minister stop manipulating these committees? Will he respect the independent nature of Canada's judicial system, as Canadians want?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, we are maintaining the balance, but we certainly remember when the Liberals were in power. There were phone calls to the Liberal Party's chief organizer for consultations concerning appointments. The Liberals never questioned the fact that their colleague, the hon. member for Mount Royal—Minister of Justice, at that time—appointed Yves de Montigny, his chief of staff, as a Federal Court judge. That is interesting.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, if Canadians had any doubts about how far the government will go to cater to its ultra-conservative base, they now have proof.

Canada's system for selecting judges worked. The Prime Minister is pretending to fix something that everybody knows is not broken. The only reason he is stacking the committees is to select judges who will cater to his neo-conservative agenda.

Will the Prime Minister show respect for our judicial system and stop his blatant attempts to politicize and control the judges?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, the government's objective is very clear. We want safer communities and streets for Canadian families. In terms of the judicial system and how our country works, Canadians are clear. They want a Parliament that passes laws and they want a judiciary that is independent, interprets those laws and applies the laws. Everything we are doing is designed to achieve that objective.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians learned today that the Conservatives have broken an election promise. That was to make public appointments according to “merit based, widely publicized, fairly conducted processes”.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. The hon. member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore has the floor to ask a question. We will want to hear his question.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, given these promises, how can the minister justify subverting the judicial appointment process and so clearly break an election promise?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the only people casting any aspersions on the judicial system and the appointment process are members of the Liberal Party of Canada.

In fact, the process that we have set in place was invented by a Conservative government in 1988. We have complete confidence in the individuals who are serving pro bono. That means they do not get paid for it; they do it because of their respect for the judicial system in this country. It is a system that works well and the Liberal Party should not be casting aspersions on it.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is not this side of the House but that side of the House that is casting aspersions on the process.

Today, we learned that this Conservative government sabotaged the system by appointing partisan members to these committees.

How can the minister justify such political interference in our judicial system?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure you that the individuals who have been appointed to this process are people who have the best interests of the judicial system at heart.

To be fair to the hon. member, it was brought to my attention about a week ago that in Alberta one of the individuals who was appointed was a supporter of the Conservative Party. I said, show me somebody in Alberta who did not support the Conservative Party, let us face it.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today we learned that, of the 33 members of the judicial advisory committees appointed by the current government, at least 16 are affiliated to some degree with the Conservative Party. Oddly enough, this party constantly criticized the Liberal government for its many partisan appointments. The Prime Minister even proceeded with the adoption of the Accountability Act in order to, and I quote, “change forever the way business is done in Ottawa”.

After conducting his election campaign on a platform of accountability and integrity, has the Prime Minister not fallen into the same trap as his predecessors?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to appointing the finest judges in terms of merit and legal excellence. Part of doing that is having a judicial advisory committee that is composed of quality people, all of whom I might add, are serving at no cost to the taxpayers, as volunteers.

They are serving as volunteers for the benefit of all Canadians.

They are doing this with a mind to putting on the bench the very best people possible. When we look at the people that we have coming forward to serve in this role, one sees they are indeed people who all Canadians can be confident will do a fine job.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is clearly undertaking an ideological realignment by appointing people who think like he does to the judiciary advisory committee.

Will the Prime Minister admit that the main objective of these partisan appointments is to ensure that the courts share his philosophy?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians do not think it is unusual that we would want people who know something about the judicial system, such as police officers, to step forward to participate and provide advice on who should be in the courts. That is the kind of thing we believe in, just as this government believes in making our streets and communities safer for families and protecting them from the rising tide of crime. Some people may think that is rigid ideology. We think that is what Canadians want.

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a most intriguing example of the Conservative government's partisan appointments to the judiciary advisory committee is that of Mark Bettens, a Nova Scotia firefighter.

Can the Minister of Justice tell us if Mr. Bettens is qualified to select judges because he is a firefighter or because he was a Conservative candidate who was twice defeated in Nova Scotia? How does the Conservative government justify his appointment?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure but it sounds like the hon. member was trying to make an attack on an individual who might be a firefighter.

I can tell him that firefighters are very involved with their communities and very involved with volunteering their time. That is what these committees are for. They are individuals who come together and in the best interests of their country and the judicial system make recommendations to the Government of Canada.

The constitutional authority for appointments rests with the Minister of Justice on recommendation to the Governor General. We will continue to make the high quality of appointments that we have had up to this point.

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we believe that judges should not choose firefighters and firefighters should not choose judges. That is how it should work.

Two weeks ago, the Minister of Industry called it an act of patronage to require Boeing to provide sufficient spinoffs to Quebec. I do not know what he would call the partisan appointments by his government.

Is it patronage or just chance that Ms. Johanne Desjardins, a graphic artist, was appointed by the government to recommend judges? Is it happenstance or because she was a staff member of a former Conservative minister?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the members of that committee come from a wide range. We have representatives from the Bar Association, the Office of the Attorney General, members of the judiciary and, yes, members from the general public, equal or spirited-minded volunteers, people who are prepared to spend their time and give their best advice.

I totally reject his comments with respect to firefighters. It is an insult to firefighters across the country.

Canadian Forces

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice's comments just now were insulting and arrogant with regard to the whole issue of partisanship and judges. I wish he would take it more seriously.

On another matter, when we ask our troops to risk their lives on the front, their families expect a minimum of support if the ultimate sacrifice is made. The widows of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan now have to fight the banks. Despite making $19 billion in profits last year, the banks refuse to honour their mortgage insurance because their husbands were killed in combat. This is indecent and shameful.

What will the government do about this injustice?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, in terms of the insurance policies that are offered by the military, the military does have insurance plans that do not have a war or terrorism clause.

In terms of the banks, I think the member's concern has been taken up by the Minister of Finance who has written to the banks to ask them to explain this policy and perhaps exercise some deference in support of our troops who are doing their best and putting their lives on the line to defend Canadians and to defend freedom and democracy in Afghanistan.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, writing letters to the banks does not seem to do very much good. What we need is a government that will stand behind these brave families in terms of what they are facing. They have a labyrinth right now of obstacles facing them when it comes to dealing with these mortgage payments and it seems to depend on how loud and clear they are able to have their voices heard. That should not be the case.

Can we not agree that these families should get our support unequivocally? Will the government not ensure that it will stand behind these families when they are trying to get their mortgages covered if someone in their family has been killed in combat?

[Greg Thompson, Conservative, Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I will let the House know that this year alone this government spent $352 million more on veterans and their families than last year. We implemented a new veterans charter which commits us to $250,000 for every widow, tax free, something the other government sat on but did not do. We are spending more on veterans and their families and the widows.

Judicial Appointments

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, within months of taking office, the Conservatives began stacking the bench with their friends: the former president of their party in Quebec, the Conservative co-chair from New Brunswick, a Conservative fundraiser from Alberta, and on it goes. These appointments were made by the former justice minister until we caught him with his hand in the cookie jar.

Will the new, moderate justice minister do what his predecessor refused to do and stop appointing Conservative Party hacks to judicial positions?