Recent comments by Ontario Premier Doug Ford have made it clear that the changes his Progressive Conservative government made in 2021 to Ontario’s judicial appointment system, and more recent changes Ford’s government made, which give the Attorney General more power and control over the appointment process, are intended to allow the government to appoint as judges only people who will enforce the law in the way Premier Ford wants it enforced.

Premier Ford’s comments were so extreme that the chief justices of Ontario’s three courts issued a joint statement the next day asserting the independence of the courts and judges.

Independent, impartial judges are a key part of the system for ensuring fair law enforcement and democratic, accountable government. Canadian courts have established that, to be perceived as independent and impartial, judges must be protected from interference by politicians, control the administration of the courts, and be protected from having the salaries and resourced cut by politicians.

Democracy Watch challenged the federal judicial appointments system in 2020 after internal Liberal government emails were disclosed showing that the Liberals were checking candidates to determine if they supported the Liberals. The Federal Court of Appeal issued a unanimous ruling that a partisan, political appointments system could lead the courts to conclude that an independent appointment process is also key to ensuring the independence and impartiality of judges.

Democracy Watch is planning to file a similar court case challenging the Ford government’s new appointment system for Ontario provincial court judges.

We need your support now to pursue this lawsuit before Ontario’s judges and courts are all tainted with partisanship and bias that favours Premier Ford and the PC Party. Please see the many ways you can donate on this page.

For more details, click here to see Democracy Watch’s news release about the lawsuit.