The Supreme Court of Canada JusticesBLAIR GABLE
Good morning,
One of the most important appointments a prime minister can make is to the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter of Canada's laws. And with Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin stepping down next month, Justin Trudeau has a chance to shape the court in two ways: first, by choosing a new justice to join the bench; and second, by choosing which of the current eight puisne judges will be elevated to chief.
The only requirements for Supreme Court justices are that three of nine come from Quebec, and that they have served either on the bench of a superior court or for 10 years at the bar. The rest is convention, though the conventions are powerful: When Mr. Trudeau last year considered leaving the top court without an Atlantic representative, the legal community howled and the Prime Minister appointed Malcolm Rowe of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In picking a new justice, Mr. Trudeau will almost certainly follow regional convention by choosing another jurist from British Columbia to replace Chief Justice McLachlin, who has served in that role since 1989. He is also, Globe justice writer Sean Fine reports, strongly considering appointing the first Indigenous Supreme Court judge.
In picking a chief justice, Mr. Trudeau may choose which convention to follow. Since the Second World War, chief justices have generally alternated between anglophones and francophones, and were usually the most senior member of the top court at the time of their appointments. Usually, those two conventions have pointed to the same person. But not on the current court. As Mr. Fine writes today, the Prime Minister is choosing between the relatively conservative Justice Richard Wagner, 60, of Quebec, who would uphold the first convention, and the more liberal Justice Rosalie Abella, 71, of Ontario, who would uphold the second.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
The Liberal government will unveil its National Housing Strategy today, which is expected to provide direct assistance to low-income Canadians for their rent. It will also provide billions of dollars in investment in affordable housing. The strategy is not expected to directly tackle the issue of steeply rising real estate costs in major Canadian cities, however.
The fifth round of North American free-trade agreement talks have wrapped up in Mexico City, and sources tell The Globe that Canada's pitch to the U.S. was that their protectionist demands on auto would backfire and hurt the domestic industry. The sixth round is scheduled to be held in Montreal in January.
Female cabinet ministers are more likely to hire female staff than male ministers, a Hill Times analysis finds.
Speaking in Ottawa, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley suggests the federal Liberals should work with her to get pipelines built in return for her support on their climate policies – because without those new energy projects she might lose the next election, and her competition won't be as friendly to them.
The federal government says Calgary must provide more details about its potential bid for the 2026 Olympics, including a solid business argument, before Ottawa will sign on to the expensive bidding process. City council is warning that if the Alberta and federal governments don't sign on soon by the new year, the whole thing is off.
B.C.'s health minister says the province will join legal action seeking to roll back the $700,000-a-year price for the treatment of two rare genetic conditions. The province has become the fourth to publicly fund Soliris in limited circumstances for patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome or paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, which both cause blood clots.
B.C. is changing the way it tracks who buys and sells real estate, as it seeks to prevent sellers who aren't residents of Canada from skirting taxes. But some lawyers and notaries are warning that the province is putting too much onus on people purchasing a property to determine the tax status of the person they're buying from.
The government and the pharmaceutical company that developed the antimalarial drug mefloquine are trying to get a lawsuit from veterans tossed that was first launched in 2001.
The Canada Revenue Agency frequently drops calls and gives taxpayers incorrect information, the federal Auditor-General says.
And somewhat-disclosed documents from Canada's digital spy agency reveal workers disciplined for using investigative tools frivolously and watching porn at work. (And if you thought yesterday's quiz was tough, try this one: What's the name of the agency we're talking about? According to a government survey, only 3 per cent of Canadians know the answer.)
Rob Carrick (The Globe and Mail) on home ownership: "The Vancouver and Toronto markets have been volatile in recent years as measures taken by various levels of government to contain price increases butted up against strong demand from domestic and foreign buyers. Sales levels in the two cities have been down over some time frames, and so have prices. But the bottom line over the past two years is that houses are considerably more expensive for middle-class buyers."
Mark Milke (The Globe and Mail) on B.C.'s Jumbo Glacier Resort: "The resort was first proposed in 1990 – when the first George Bush was in the White House and the Soviet Union still existed – on the site of an abandoned sawmill. Its continual delay is a case study in how unreasonable environmental activism, civil servants, at least one private special interest and a First Nation combined to thwart a potential major tourist draw."
John Richards (The Globe and Mail) on the Site C dam: "Ottawa has shown little interest in committing its promised infrastructure bank to invest in expensive interprovincial transmission links. Building an adequate transmission link from Site C to Alberta would cost at least $500 million. At probably similar cost, Manitoba could link to Saskatchewan and get the latter off coal. And there are other links to be made from Quebec to the Atlantic provinces and Ontario."
Emma Teitel (Toronto Star) on Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer: "If you're an average-looking conservative politician running for the highest office in the nation against two very handsome, left-leaning competitors, both of whom have been written up in top fashion magazines, how do you use your difference to your advantage? Easy. You flaunt it. You do exactly as federal Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer did this month in a new campaign spot: You put on your least remarkable shirt and your most forgiving pair of pants and you tell your fellow country men and women that the mild-mannered schlub standing before them is the answer to what ails them."
Karthik Nachiappan (OpenCanada) on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh: "Singh's election heralds major shifts in Canadian politics and society but also has international implications given his and the Sikh community's contentious tangles with the Indian government that might be revived through his controversial stances on the Indian government's handling of the political crisis wrought by Sikh separatism in 1984. Singh's own life story, his declarations on the treatment of Sikhs by Indian authorities and ostensible defence of Sikh secessionist elements could reopen wounds that still fester in both countries."
Chris Hannay