Last November, then-Justice Minister Vic Toews proposed that committees vetting potential judges should be expanded to include representatives from law enforcement.  Judges and lawyers raised a huge outcry: They were appalled that their exclusive club might be crashed by the men and women in blue.  Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin publicly “rebuked” the minister, saying the proposal would compromise the independence of the judiciary and endanger the interests of all Canadians.  Then the lawyers chimed in, expressing “astonishment” that the minister would “politicise” judicial appointments.

Fortunately, the Conservative government didn’t back down in the face of denunciations and thinly veiled threats.  The first police officials to sit on judicial advisory committees have been named.

The officials range from a Vancouver detective who worked on the Pickton case to a Toronto police-union boss who called for a tougher law-enforcement approach to gun violence.

Canada’s judicial appointments process sounds better already.

They will sit on the judicial advisory committees that assess judgeship applicants, a fact that is raising concerns that the balance of power on the committees has shifted in favour of the Minister of Justice.

Shifted in favour of an elected representative of the people?  Horrors!  And isn't it kind of insulting to imply that the police will be stooges for the Minister of Justice?  Some unnamed critics evidently have a very low opinion of Canada’s law enforcement officers.  In any case, the committees are merely advisory: The minister still has absolute discretion over final appointments.

Critics also worry that the Tories are jeopardizing the independence of the judiciary in order to implement their tough-on-crime agenda.

"It gives the perception that the deck is being stacked," said J. Parker MacCarthy, the president of the Canadian Bar Association. Those concerns were dismissed by a Justice Ministry spokesperson.

FWIW, I dismiss them, too.  Note to Mr MacCarthy: The perception of the average Canadian is that the “deck” is now moving toward balance after a long spell of extreme imbalance.

Several veteran police officials were named, including Dave Wilson, head of the Toronto Police Association, and Karl Walsh, president of the Ontario Provincial Police Association.

Mr. MacCarthy said he was pleased with the level of experience of each of these officials, but worried that their careers as police officers would hinder their partiality.

More lawyerly arrogance.  Where do judges and lawyers get the notion that they’re the only impartial people in the entire country?  No wonder some of them think it’s fine and dandy to undermine the will of Parliament.

"You now are seeking significant input from the particular group which themselves are going to be supervised by the courts," he said.

For the first time in a long time, interlopers will be in a position to supervise the supervisors.  Maybe that’s what bothering those judges so much.

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