Ottawa set for rematch in top court over judicial appointment
March 15, 2015
The Conservative government is facing a rematch in the Supreme Court of Canada after the unprecedented rejection last year of a judge it wished to appoint to the country’s highest court.
At a hearing next month, the court will consider the legality of another senior judicial appointment – this one of Justice Robert Mainville to the Quebec Court of Appeal last June. A government victory would provide a way around last year’s Supreme Court ruling that Justice Marc Nadon was not eligible for a Quebec seat on the Supreme Court because he came from the Federal Court of Appeal. A defeat would be a second embarrassment in two years for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Supreme Court’s 6-1 ruling was the first time in a common-law country a top court has overturned an appointment to its own bench.
This content has been updated on March 28, 2015 at 13:55.