Supreme Court of Canada not on same level of controversy as the U.S.: Law professor
Posted October 6, 2018 5:08 pm.
Last Updated October 6, 2018 7:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The Supreme Court of Canada is no stranger to controversial appointments, but not to the same extent as the U.S. Supreme Court.
The last appointment to fail was in 2013, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper attempted to appoint Marc Nadon, a Federal Court of Appeal Judge to a Quebec seat, but was ruled ineligible because Nadon wasn’t a sitting judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal, Superior Court or a current member of the Bar of Quebec.
Ian Holloway, Dean of Law at the University of Calgary, said this is a very Canadian controversy, but we shouldn’t get too smug about our political culture.
“We run the risk of developing the same kind of dynamic that we see in the U.S., I think we’re a ways off from that but I don’t think we can assume that it will never ever happen here.”
Holloway added that we also see judges in Canada identified with political parties but our party affiliation isn’t as antagonistic as it has become in the United States.
The United States Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court on Saturday morning, the appointment was riddled with controversy after Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford in the 1980s.
