Police Will Add Value to JAC`s

Devolin Column
February 23, 2007

Recently, Canada’s new government announced its intention to add a representative from the police community to Judicial Advisory Committees. Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois members are
fiercely resisting this change.

Judicial Advisory Committees (JACs) play an important role in Canada’s judicial process by making recommendations to the Minister of Justice regarding the suitability of candidates to be appointed to federal courts.

Since 1988, the Minister of Justice has sought input from a broad range of stakeholders such as:

* the law society in each province and territory, 
* the provincial branch of the Canadian Bar Association; 
* the judiciary of a province or territory; the provincial Attorneys General, and 
* the public. 

The Conservative government is not proposing structural change to JAC`s.  Rather, we want to incrementally improve JAC`s by adding representation from the law enforcement community - a profession as involved in the administration of justice as lawyers and judges.

As we all know, police officers serve their communities with honour and distinction. It is clear that they care deeply about the well-being of Canadians. Every day, across this country, police officers put their
lives on the line to protect others.

In fact, police officers are very often the first on the scene when there is an emergency, a disaster, be it manmade or natural. As such, they have a unique perspective on the real world situations that our judicial system must address.

That’s why our government believes that Judicial Advisory Committees will be improved by the addition of police representation. The opposition parties suggest that it would be inappropriate to have a police representative on these committees. I could not disagree more with their assessment.



I believe that Canadians want a strengthened criminal justice system. During last year’s election campaign, in the aftermath of a tragic shooting on Yonge Street in Toronto at Christmas time, every party promised to get tough on crime. 

Unfortunately, since that time support for Conservative measures to get tough on crime have repeatedly been undermined by the opposition parties.

We make no apologies for including competent and professional police officers on these committees, and we will continue to appoint judges based on merit and legal excellence. Canadians want and deserve no less.