Federal judicial appointments “remain open to blatant partisan political favouritism. They use their local contacts, such as party fundraisers (or “bagmen”) to identify lawyers, academics and sitting judges who fit their specifications. You always have to have a champion. Nobody gets appointed without somebody walking them through, in one way or another.” I don’t see how one can toe the line, buy in, sell out, condescend, play the political game and still be an effective independent minded judge – unless, of course, you’re a right-wing Conservative – which is the point, I guess.
For a decade, the Prime Minister has been on a quest to take back the judiciary from the Liberals. Sean Fine goes inside the opaque world of judicial appointments to reveal the making of a Conservative legacy
Source: Stephen Harper’s courts: How the judiciary has been remade – The Globe and Mail