Trudeau’s Supreme Court pick tangled in race, gender politics

by Sean Fine JUSTICE WRITER

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing the politics of gender, race, language and region as he prepares to make his second appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Mr. Trudeau has invited applications from bilingual candidates from the West and the North to fill the position being vacated by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who retires in mid-December. Six weeks ago, an independent committee gave the Prime Minister a short list of three to five candidates, though he is free to go outside the list. An announcement could be made this month.

To some legal observers, keeping a gender split in place with at least four women on the nine-member Supreme Court is vital.

“The first rule should be parity at the Supreme Court,” retired Quebec Court of Appeal justice Louise Otis told The Globe and Mail.

full story at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/trudeaus-decision-on-supreme-court-appointment-tangled-in-race-gender-politics/article36999295/