QUESTION PERIOD — Justice
Judicial Appointments
March 10, 2020
Senator Gold, please get us an answer on what the Trudeau government is doing to investigate that serious potential breach of cabinet confidentiality.
Media accounts have also revealed that the Trudeau government’s judicial appointment vetting process includes Liberal MP pizza nights, vetting names through the Liberal Party database and confidential JAC lists being circulated as widely as the morning newspaper.
Yet, with all this, your government still has 65 judicial vacancies across Canada. What is the bottleneck? Doesn’t the Trudeau government have enough cabinet ministers’ spouses to vet JAC lists through?
Senator, thank you for the question. I will repeat this: The processes in place for the identification of those who are applying for judicial appointments and the vetting are designed to ensure that the best quality of jurists are appointed to the bench, and I’m advised that the rules are being followed appropriately.
