IN THE HOUSE – Delays in appointing new judges shouldn’t be political

Comments by Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo (Conservative) at a meeting of the Justice Committee Jan. 29, 2024 to discuss a motion by the Conservatives to call witnesses to explain delays in appointing new judges.

I’M EXCEEDINGLY DISAPPOINTED here today, when we look at the Liberal government once again, after eight years, getting in the way of justice for ordinary Canadians.

At the end of the day, there are people who are sitting in bail on remand, there are people who are dealing with the division of significant assets in a marital breakdown and there are people who may have been injured in a serious act of negligence who are not getting their day in court. That falls directly at the feet of this Liberal government, and yet here we are today to investigate this.

Here’s the issue. The Prime Minister’s Office was meddling in judicial appointments. If there is no reason to study that, then we might as well just pack our bags and get out of here. This was from the former Minister of Justice, who was anything but non-partisan in a number of different facets.

This Liberal government is saying that they don’t want to look at this and there’s nothing to see here. We know that the Liberals will vote against this. The question for me, really, is whether the NDP will again go along in their act as part of a cover-up coalition and vote with the Liberals to shut this meeting down, or whether they will do what’s right for Canadians. Now, this has to occur in the interest of all Canadians, full stop.

I am going to address some of the things Mr. (James) Maloney (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice) said. He talked about the integrity of the system. Do you want integrity of the system? Let’s look at that. The integrity of the system is brought into disrepute when the Prime Minister’s Office isn’t appointing judges when judges need to appointed and are recommended to be appointed.

I can’t think of anything that would have equal impact on the administration of justice, from the point of view of judicial oversight and actually administering justice.

Mr. Maloney also says that this is a political discussion. Well, tell that to the people who are waiting in remand for trial. Tell that to the people who are waiting for a judge in family court and have two, three or four trial dates cancelled. Tell that to the person who was rear-ended eight years ago, has a traumatic brain injury and is waiting for their settlement. I don’t think they would think this is a political discussion.

He says Bill C-40 is an issue here. Well, I can dispel that right here, right now. We’re saying that we’ll study Bill C-40 on Thursday. We’re talking about today having meetings. Bill C-40 will be done on Thursday—I promise you that—so this idea that Bill C-40 should get in the way of Canadians getting to the truth is unfounded, in my view.

Now let’s see what the NDP does.

Editor’s Note: The motion, and an amendment were defeated.

Source: openparliament.ca