Chief Justice in the Supreme Court of Canada - Term Paper Example

Chief Justice of the SCC Number Introduction The Governor-in-Council, also known as the Governor General of Canada who advices the cabinet also appoints the Chief Justice of Canada, alongside the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC)’s eight puisne Justices. These nine legal officers are designated or chosen from sitting barristers or judges who have served for not less than ten years in the bar, in their respective jurisdictions. Prior to making the oath of office, the Chief Justice must have been sworn as a member of the Queen’s Privy Council, Canada. These punctilious checks and measures that are applied in the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada are underpinned by the roles that the holder of this office discharges. These roles are in turn highly sacrosanct to the dispensation of justice throughout Canada, as shall be seen in the discussion that ensues forthwith. First, it is important to note that the Chief Justice of the SCC sits as the chairperson of the Canadian Judicial Council. The Canadian Judicial Council in turn comprises all of Canada’s chief justices, and their associate chief justices who serve in the superior courts. The Canadian Judicial Council which was established by the Judges Act of Canada coordinates all the issues of discussions that concern the judiciary, organizes and facilitates all the seminars that involve federally appointed judges, sets up and carries out inquiries on public complaints or on requests that have been made by the provincial attorney general, or the federal Minister of Justice. Normally, these complaints and requests concern the conduct of a federally appointed judge. By extension, the foregoing means that the Chief Justice of the SCC initiates the roles of the Canadian Judicial Council and delegates those roles to those functioning below his office. This means that the Chief Justice is the officer who oversees all the functions immediately above (organizing the seminars for the federally judges, coordinating all issues of discussions that concern the judiciary and making inquiries on complaints lodged by the public, the provincial attorney general or the federal Minister of Justice). In almost the same wavelength, the Chief Justice presides over and guides all the sittings of the Supreme Court. The only exception to this provision is the Chief Justice’s absence. In the event of this absence, the Deputy Chief Justice will chair the sitting of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice is the same office that has to choose the panels of Justices who preside over all the Supreme Court of Canada cases. According to Dodek (2011), the Chief Justice also directs and manages the staff serving in the Supreme Court. This role is of immense magnitude, given that the Supreme Court of Canada has more than 150 employees who are also members of the federal government civil service. At the same time, the import of this development is that matters touching on the welfare of the employees of Canada’s Supreme Courts such as the extension and harmonization of remunerations, workplace safety and standards, efficiency and legal competence among Supreme Court employees and the observation of work and legal ethics are all matters that fall under the Chief Justice’s jurisdiction and responsibility. The case above has a great bearing on the dispensation of justice in Canada. Particularly, matters touching on the harmonization of remunerations, workplace safety and professional standards directly bear on the motivation of the Supreme Court employees, like other members of the federal government civil service. This means that the Chief Justice directly bears on the services and duties which are: giving its views on how a specific law ought to be interpreted and applied by Canada’s entire court system; giving guidance to the lower courts; providing uniformity in the court systems throughout Canada; directing change in interpreting and applying laws; and recommending or even rejecting explicitly the traditional interpretation of the law, or the manner of the judiciary’s reasoning; and laying down a new approach, in the event that the latter happens. Macfarlane (2009) divulges that this means that not only does the Chief Justice have a great bearing on the running and functions of the Supreme Court, but that the Chief Justice also plays a pivotal role in which civil law, criminal law, federalism, individual rights and freedoms and cases touching on the same are interpreted. Together with other Justices of the Canadian Court, the Chief Justice serves as the vicegerent of the Governor General by the virtue of according bills passed through acts of parliaments Royal Assent. The deputization of the Governor General by the Chief Justice is seen in the instance where the Chief Justice signs official documents and receives credentials of newly appointed ambassadors and high commissioners (McCormick, 2011). There are also other peripheral duties that the Chief Justice. Among these duties, the Chief Justice serves as a member of the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada is an advisory council of the country’s civilian order. The flipside of this is that the Chief Justice desists from voting for a candidate’s removal from the Order of Canada, given that this process is applicable to individuals who have been convicted for a criminal offence in a lower court. The import of this practice is the rationale that the Chief Justice’s participation in the vote may stir conflicts of interests, in the event that the convicted individual makes an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act also specifies that every province in Canada has to have a three-person commission, taking over the responsibility of making adjustments and modifications that particular province’s federal ridings. The importance of the Chief Justice is seen to apply hereby, given that it is the chief justices who appoint the chairperson(s) of each of their respective provincial commissions. In the event that the provincial chief justices do not make these appointments, then this responsibility will solely fall on the shoulders of the Chief Justice of Canada (Radmilovic, 2010). There are other oversight roles that the Chief Justice of the SCC in case of unforeseen eventualities materializing. Particularly, the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of the Commander-in-Chief and Governor General, 1947 specifies that in the event of the death of the Governor General or absence of the Governor General from Canada for more than one month, then the Chief Justice may assume the roles and powers of the Governor General, serving as the Administrator of Canada. This has happened twice in Canada. The former Chief Justices Sir Layman P. Duff and Robert Taschereau have acted as Governor General temporarily, following the demise of the sitting Governor General. Most recently, the seventeenth and the incumbent Chief Justice of Canada served as the Administrator of Canada, following the protracted hospitalization of the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, in 2005. Examining and assessing the role of the current Chief Justice The current Chief Justice is the Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin PC (b. September 7th, 1943). McLachlin tenure is unique, not just because of the roles she discharges, but also because she is the first woman to occupy this position. McLachlin’s tenure follows her appointment in 2000. McLachlin’s checkered profile that merited her this portfolio is impeccable, given that before this appointment, she had been serving as one of the puisne Justices of Canada’s Supreme Court. Before this, she had also served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the British Columbia and also as a Justice on the Court of Appeal of the British Columbia. A graduate of the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law, McLachlin had also taught law at the University of the British Columbia and practiced law with different firms. The roles that McLachlin as the Chief Justice continue to discharge are totally concomitant with those that have been previously discussed. This means that McLachlin discharges all the roles that have been discussed heretofore as existing within the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada’s jurisdiction. Apart from the aforementioned and core legal or constitutional roles of the Chief Justice, McLachlin has also served the pseudo political of being the deputy of Canada’s Governor General in 2005. This position, she took place alongside other Canadian Supreme Court Justices, following the hospitalization of the then Governor Gen. Adrienne Clarkson. The Governor General had been hospitalized for a cardiac arrest and had thus been put on a cardiac pacemaker as he was to undergo cardio-surgery on July, 8th, 2005. During this period, McLachlin discharged all the duties of the Governor General. Some of these duties included the extension of royal assent to Canada’s Civil Marriage Act. It is against this backdrop that Canada would proceed to legalize same-sex marriages. McLachlin ceded away this role at the end of July when the Governor General regained his good health. McCormick (2008) observes that it is also important to note that as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, McLachlin serves also as the chairperson of not only the Canadian Judicial Council and the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada, but of the Governors of the National Judicial Institute also. McLachlin also serves as a member of the Queen’s Privy Council, Canada. This means that McLachlin engages in teamwork with other members of the Queen’s Privy Council, Canada to aid and advise the Canadian government. Likewise, through this convention, McLachlin takes part in advising the governor general and the sovereign power on the rightful manner in which it should exercise its Royal Prerogatives that are executed by the Cabinet, other ministers of the Crown and other appointed and elected chambers of the Canadian parliament. Conversely, McLachlin serves as a Commander of the Legion of Honor, having been made one in 2008 by the Government of France. As the highest decoration in France, this is a French order which was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte himself, as the First Consul which had on May 19th, 1802, succeeded to the Directorie. This means that McLachlin also participates in discharging all the roles that are due to all the member of the Grand Cross. The converse of this is that McLachlin also gets to enjoy all the privileges that are due to the members of the Grand Cross. McLachlin is also a senior member of the Venerable Order of St. John, having been made the commander of this order on December 15th, 2006. This means that McLachlin may participate in the world-wide missions that are aimed at preventing and relieving sicknesses and injuries and acting to promote the wellbeing and health of people, globally. Personal Reflection and Conclusion The foregoing clearly shows that McLachlin has discharged indispensible and clearly delicate roles in the judicial and constitutional life of Canada by for instance, chairing and heading the Supreme Court and the Canadian Judicial Council. Other roles that are within the Chef Justice’s jurisdiction and are equally sacrosanct in Canada’s constitutional life and progress include the appointing the Justices in every provinces in case of eventualities and the dispensation of the roles of the deputy Governor General. These two roles are not only pseudo-political, but also help contribute to Canada’s political stability. In this light, fledging democracies have a lot to learn from the roles that the Chief Justice of the SCC plays. For instance, the Chief Justice’s role as the deputy Governor General shows the need to devolve executive (political) power so that in case of the death or absence of the head of the executive, the ensuing power vacuum does not pave way to coup de tat and political instability. Similarly, McLachlin’s track record and able leadership as the Chief Justice of the SCC serves as a strong point worthy of developing democracies’ consideration, in light of the need to infuse corporate leadership with gender parity. References Dodek, A. (2011). Conflicted Identities: The Battle over the Duty of Loyalty in Canada. Legal Ethics, 14 (2), 193-214. Macfarlane, E. (2009). Administration at the Supreme Court of Canada: Challenges and change in the Charter era. Canadian Public Administration, 52 (1), 1-21. McCormick, P. J. (2011). Sharing the Spotlight: Co-authored Reasons on the Modern Supreme Court of Canada. Dalhousie Law Journal, 34 (1), 165-196. McCormick, P. (2008). Standing Apart: Separate Concurrence and the Modern Supreme Court of Canada, 1984-2006. McGill Law Journal, 53 (1), 137-166. Radmilovic, V. (2010). A Strategic Approach to Judicial Legitimacy: Supreme Court of Canada and the Marshall Case. Review of Constitutional Studies, 15 (1), 77-115. Read More