OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) –– Members of Parliament from Canada’s Conservative Party have sounded the alarm over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apparent appointment of judges who are mostly Liberal Party donors, saying his slow pace of filling vacant positions is being done so that he can put in place new justices who are his “Liberal insider friends.”
According to a recent eight-month in-depth analysis conducted by the National Post along with the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF), released on August 9, data shows that the Trudeau Liberals almost exclusively appoint judges who are party donors.
The data reveals that of the 1,308 judicial and tribunal appointments made by the Trudeau Liberals since again coming to power in 2016, a whopping 76.3 percent of its appointees had given money to the Liberal Party of Canada.
By contrast, only 22.9 percent of appointees were donors to the Conservative Party of Canada, and only 17.9 percent gave to the New Democratic Party. Of note is that some judges did donate to more than one political party, however, this number was low.
Since 2016, the data shows that the number of Conservative-friendly judges appointed has plummeted. Interestingly, the amount of NDP donors appointed has almost doubled between 2016 and 2022. This is no surprise considering the NDP’s current agreement with the Liberals to stay in power until 2025.
According to Conservative MP Rob Moore, the appointment of Liberal judges is being done so that Trudeau can place his “friends” into key judicial posts.
“Appointing judges is the prime minister’s responsibility, but instead of filling the high number of vacancies to keep criminals off our streets, Trudeau is holding out to appoint his Liberal insider friends,” said Moore as noted in the National Post.
Moore said that due to Trudeau’s failure to appoint judges who are not favorable to his party, “dangerous, violent criminals have walked away free because no judges were available to hear their cases.”
As it stands, there are about 80 vacant seats that need to be filled by the federal government. The number of seats needing to be filled, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner, is a situation nearing crisis levels.
According to Trudeau’s office, “partisan databases” are no longer used to vet potential judicial candidates.
The spokesperson for Canada’s new Justice Minister Arif Virani said that “The judicial appointment process is focused on merit.”
“Importantly, an applicant’s political donation record is not a factor in the decision to recommend them for a judicial appointment,” said Communications Director for the Minister of Justice David Taylor.
There are no rules or laws in place which ban potential new justices from donating to political parties before they are appointed.
Yesterday, it was reported that the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) will investigate why no less than two Ontario Superior Court judges as well as 15 tribunal members had continued to donate to political parties after being appointed by Trudeau.
Trudeau has history of appointing Liberal insiders to key positions
The appointment of Liberal-friendly judges by Trudeau has also extended to public commissions.
Earlier this year, Trudeau appointed “family friend” and former Governor General David Johnston to investigate alleged Communist Chinese interference in Canada’s recent elections.
However, after a large amount of backlash, Johnston resigned as “special rapporteur” in June.
As a result of Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act (EA) on February 14, 2022, to shut down the popular Freedom Convoy, which took to Ottawa demanding an end to all COVID mandates, the Public Order Emergency Commission was held earlier this year.
Trudeau appointed Liberal-friendly Judge Paul Rouleau to head the Public Order Emergency Commission, a decision which was heavily criticized.