Talk:Supreme Court of Canada

Please note that Crown copyright in Canada is not the same as US government copyright which generally allows people to copy government documents without permission. I noticed that some of the material seemed to be pasted from the Canadian government web site. I've tried to rewrite it so that it is not a direct quote.Alex756 00:01 May 6, 2003 (UTC)

Removed line about "thus the Canadian system is different from that of the United States". The Canadian court system is different from that of the United States, but that sentence was right after a line that said that provincial courts had general jurisdiction while federal courts had limited jurisdiction. In this respect, the US and Canada are the same. That sentence needed to go elsewhere. Roadrunner 09:04, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Except that a true "provincial court" has no inherent jurisdiction whatsoever. The superior courts of each province (the *only* courts in Canada with inherent jurisdiction) - so-called section 96 courts - are populated with federally-appointed judges.

Appointment of Judges

To avoid have to continue to go back and forth on the issue of who appoints judges, I offer the following bit of evidence: "The Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of Canada and eight puisne Judges appointed by the Governor in Council from among superior court judges or from among barristers of at least ten years' standing at the Bar of a province or territory." Source: www.scc-csc.gc.ca/faq/faq/index_e.asp#f12. "Governor-in-Council" means the governor general on advice from the cabinet. HistoryBA 15:35, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

If you read any newspaper in the country or pay any attention to the political dialouge of Canada, it is clear that the Prime Minister of Canada makes the decision over who is appointed to the Surpreme Court. "Formally" it may be the cabinet, but the 40-some odd members of the cabinet do not in practice have any influence in who gets chosen. It's the Prime Minister's decision, and to suggest otherwise is pointlessly mis-leading about something that should be very clear. user:J.J.

I'm going to have to side with HistoryBA on this one. The fact that the Prime Minister often has the last say is a matter of party politics, not Canadian law. To say that the prime minister appoints judges has no basis in law. The fact of the matter is he as no enforceable right to make appointments and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. --PullUpYourSocks 02:30, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, officially judges are appointed by the Governor in Council I believe. The Prime Minister isn't even in the constitution. --File:Ottawa flag.png Spinboy 02:39, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

First, I have to object to J.J.'s snide opening comment, "If you read any newspaper in the country or pay any attention to the political dialouge of Canada, it is clear that the Prime Minister of Canada makes the decision over who is appointed to the Surpreme Court." I do read newspapers and follow the political dialogue. But newspapers are not always right. The Cabinet -- or at least certain cabinet ministers -- do exert some influence over the appointments. The prime minister appoints senior ministers in each province, largely to get their advice on organizational and patronage issues. He does not operate in a political vacuum. HistoryBA 22:37, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Then at least I'm going to write "The Governor General appoints the judges based on the reccomendation of the Prime Minister, who is expected to act within the consultation of his cabinet." To blatantly eliminate any mention of the Prime Minister in the opening sentence is rather deceptive in my mind, it paints a picture of a Canadian political system we may wish exists, rather than the one that actually does. Nevermind what the constitution says, the Canadian constitution contains huge amounts of language that reveals very little about the day-to-day reality of how the government operates. We may as well start the article on the Prime Minister of Canada by saying "there is no Prime Minister of Canada" since according to the constitution, there isn't. user:J.J.