New Supreme Court appointment coming 'imminently' as Carney considers two top applicants

OTTAWA — Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the new Supreme Court justice will be appointed “imminently” as the prime minister is set to pick from two top candidates to replace retired Justice Sheilah Martin.

“I expect that this appointment will be made imminently… we’ll be moving as quick as we possibly can,” Fraser told National Post on Tuesday. “When there is an ability to get a job done, he’s not one to wait,” Fraser added of Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Multiple government and judicial sources confirmed to National Post that the two candidates being considered by Carney are Glenn Joyal and Anna Loparco. The sources were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the appointment process publicly.

Joyal is the chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba, a job he’s held since 2011. Loparco was appointed as a judge to the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta in 2019.

Through an Alberta Courts spokesperson, Justice Loparco decline to comment for this story. Manitoba Courts spokesperson Aimee Fortier declined to pass on National Post’s request for comment to Chief Justice Joyal, saying that the inquiry “doesn’t fall within the type judges would generally respond to.”

With retired Supreme Court Justice Sheilah Martin’s seat vacant since May 30, Carney is expected to nominate his preferred candidate before the end of the month after presenting his decision to cabinet, the sources said.

The government will then convene a parliamentary committee hearing for the nominated candidate, after which the prime minister is expected to officialize the appointment. All of that could also happen by the end of June as well, though the timing is still not settled, the sources said.

In a statement, prime minister’s office spokesperson Renée Procter neither confirmed nor denied the identity of the top candidates nor the timeline for the appointment, saying that information about the appointment “will be shared in due course.”

Joyal and Loparco are the two only candidates recommended by the Independent Advisory Board (IAB) established by the Liberals to receive, triage and recommend applicants for the Supreme Court vacancy to the Minister of Justice, two sources confirmed.

The fact that the IAB ultimately only recommended two candidates will likely give court watchers and government officials some pause, as its government-granted mandate states it “must submit to the Prime Minister… the names of at least three, but up to five, qualified and functionally bilingual candidates.”

The IAB also submits its recommendations to the minister of justice, who then presents them to the prime minister alongside his recommended path forward.

Both Loparco and Joyal are fluently trilingual and speak English, French and Italian. They are also both known for advocating for better access to justice for French speakers in their respective provinces.

Joyal’s name has long circulated as a potential Supreme Court pick for one of the court’s two seats traditionally reserved for a candidate from Western Canada. He is widely viewed as the favourite for the current opening.

After his application to the top court in 2017 was controversially leaked to media, Joyal confirmed in 2019 to The Canadian Press that he had applied but had withdrawn his application due to his wife’s health issues.

He is well known in and outside of judicial circles and is an outspoken chief justice on issues impacting his court, such as French-language services, judicial independence and Indigenous access to justice. Earlier this year, he argued that judges shouldn’t be afraid to speak up in defence of the judiciary.

Last month, Joyal released a landmark decision finding that the federal and Manitoba governments had breached First Nations’ rights to self-governance on the issue of child welfare.

Loparco’s candidacy will likely surprise court watchers, as she is not as high-profile as Joyal and some other rumoured applicants.

A first-generation Canadian born from Italian parents, Loparco was first appointed in 2019 to the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. She is known in the province as a family law specialist.

In an undated profile published by the Canadian Bar Association , Loparco said that she co-chaired her court’s Restorative Justice, Family Law and French committees. She also said she strives to speak and write “in plain language” and make self-represented litigants “feel heard and understood”.

In a separate profile in 2023, Loparco said she worked hard upon her appointment to make restorative justice part of the court’s program.

“In practice, restorative justice means juveniles and some people charged with non-violent crimes can be diverted away from the court system, sparing them jail time. In more serious cases, it doesn’t replace prison, but it can influence a judge’s sentencing recommendation,” she said.

Sources familiar with the IAB’s work said the advisory committee received only nine applications this time, a record low since former prime minister Justin Trudeau reformed the SCC appointment process in 2016 and created the first committee.

Fraser neither confirmed nor denied the number of applicants for the positions, but said he is not concerned by the drop in candidates.

“There may be individuals who are coming into the process with some assumptions about the likelihood of success. There may be others who are looking at the field of applicants who are trying to self-assess whether they think the chances are realistic that they be appointed. There could be 100 reasons,” Fraser said.

“I have no reservations about the quality of candidates who are going to come through the process. I’m highly confident that we will find a highly skilled jurist that will fill the vacancy that Justice Martin leaves.”

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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