FORT FRANCES – Ontario’s premier appears to have a “juvenile understanding” of the court system.
That’s the impression of Doug Judson, a Fort Frances lawyer who chairs the Federation of Ontario Law Associations.
Judson was reacting to recent comments Premier Doug Ford made regarding judges and the process for selecting and appointing them.
Ford said in late February that his Progressive Conservative government will “make sure we have like-minded judges” and that he has no interest in having non-Conservatives on the advisory committee for judicial appointments.
“We’re going to get judges that are actually going to keep these criminals in jail,” he said in the legislature. “We’re going to get judges that are tough on crime.”
Ford’s declarations “are deeply disturbing to anyone with an understanding of the structure of our legal system,” Judson told Newswatch in an interview this week.
“They reflect a very fundamental and a very juvenile understanding of the importance of an independent judiciary that is capable of rendering impartial judgment to our democratic system,” he said.
“The premier’s comments are significantly harmful to that tradition and to the role that it plays in the democratic tradition of the system that we have in Ontario.”
Three former provincial court chief justices have responded to Ford’s remarks with a joint statement saying there should be no “political litmus test for judicial appointment” and the premier’s suggestion otherwise “represents a fundamental misrepresentation of our judicial system and is highly unfair to the outstanding women and men who make up the independent judiciary of the court.”
Judson described the former jurists’ response as “a very strong and accurate articulation of the issues with the premier’s comments.”
Winning a majority in provincial parliament doesn’t mean “you get to stack the deck in your favour,” Judson said.
“That is not how it’s supposed to be,” he said. “With forming government comes the responsibility of being a good steward of our institution of upholding the rule of law, which includes the independence of the judiciary, and to maintaining those traditions in good health for the people that you serve.”
Karen Seeley, who practises law in Dryden and sits on the Federation of Ontario Law Associations’ board, concurred with Judson.
“‘We’ve got a majority, so we get to make all the rules’ is not actually a very fully formed understanding of what it is to be in a democracy,” she said.
Ford’s statements could hurt public perceptions of the court system, she said.
“That is what so many of us are concerned about – that regardless of the qualifications for the people that are being appointed, there is going to be essentially an asterisk next to their name because of the comments that Mr. Ford has made.”
Appointing ideological soulmates to the bench isn’t the right way to get “tough on crime” anyway, said Judson.
“At the end of the day, if the premier wants to be tough on crime his focus in the justice system needs to be on having better cops and better prosecutors, because that’s their job.”
