On Oct. 3, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Federal Court of
Appeal Judge Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). In the
Canadian system, the prime minister has wide discretion in choosing
Supreme Court judges (Parliament has no advise-and-consent function), so
the process of filling a vacant seat is normally a fairly
straightforward affair.
Not this time. On Friday, in a stunning 6-to-1 decision, the SCC announced
that Justice Nadon was ineligible to serve on the court and that his
appointment was void. How is it that Canada’s final court of appeal was
left to assess and ultimately reject one of its own members? It’s an
extraordinary case, one that is a product of Quebec’s unique
representational guarantees, as well as the longstanding constitutional
ambiguity that surrounds the SCC itself.
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