OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following, from former local MP and cabinet minister Doug Lewis is in response to a letter from Debbie Palmer, published March 5.
Full disclosure, Doug Downey, Attorney General of Ontario, is a former law partner of mine, and I consider him a good friend. I have had no discussion with him about Debbie Palmer's letter to OrilliaMatters, of March 5, 2023. I have no knowledge of the political leanings of Ms. Palmer or her background.
What is at issue here is two methods of selecting a Chief Justice of Ontario.
The previous method, according to Ms. Palmer was for the outgoing Chief Justice of Ontario to present a list of “carefully vetted candidates” to the Attorney General from which he was to pick the next Chief Justice of Ontario.
Doug Downey has instead invited every judge in Ontario to apply to his office if they seek the appointment and from those submissions he will choose the next Chief Justice of Ontario. Ms. Palmer describes that as “anti-democratic."
Doug has forthrightly suggested that the successful candidate will reflect “the values that I have.”
In our democratic system appointments should be made by elected officials. In the case of the former method of appointing a Chief Justice, the list was prepared by the outgoing Chief Justice. The Attorney General of the day was expected to choose from that list. They were “carefully vetted candidates.” Who did the vetting and whose values did they represent? Obviously, the outgoing Chief Justice had his own values.
So, instead Downey is stating that his appointment will reflect “his values.” I think that Ms. Palmer would do well to review Doug's resume and his previous community leadership to get a sense of his background.
Appointments are a necessary part of our Canadian democratic process, but I am absolutely opposed to elections to judicial office. Judicial appointments should be made by an elected official. After participating actively in the political process for over 50 years I am convinced of one thing. Political appointments are much better than bureaucratic appointments.
An elected representative has to face the voters at the next election. A bureaucrat faces nobody to justify his or her decisions.
When I was Attorney General of Canada, a Chief Justice of a certain province with shall we say a chauvinistic approach, was resisting our appointment of a very respected and competent woman to the bench. Annoyed, I went to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to discuss the situation. Brian's reaction, paraphrased after all these years, was blunt, “Tell the Chief Justice that the appointment is going ahead.” A message I delivered with relish.
Yours truly,
Doug Lewis
