From left: Supreme Court of Canada Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Nicholas Kasirer at a public forum in Victoria on Feb. 3.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
At a public forum in Victoria hosted by the Supreme Court of Canada, to open the doors to its work, a woman in the audience asked a question about the roiling politics in the United States and the ability of Canada’s justice system to uphold human rights in perilous times.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner delivered an impassioned response – with a touch of comic timing.
“We should be optimistic for the future of Canada,” he said. “I’ll tell you why. First of all, we have a strong democracy.” He then detailed how the judicial system is impartial and independent of the churn of politics – “which might be,” he said with deliberate effect, “different from other countries.”
The chief justice paused – and the audience let out a hearty laugh.
The Supreme Court this year marks its 150th anniversary. Justices are visiting five cities across the country, starting in Victoria and concluding in November in Thunder Bay.
In Victoria on Monday and Tuesday, Chief Justice Wagner, alongside justices Andromache Karakatsanis and Nicholas Kasirer, spoke with high school students, law students, lawyers and judges. At the Duncan First Nations Court, an hour north of the city, they met with Indigenous elders.
The justices spoke of their work – how a group of nine on the top court work together and how to not fracture amid intense debate, with dissent common in many cases.
“Collegiality is just so important to collective decision-making,” Justice Karakatsanis said Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Chief Justice Wagner spoke to the online annual meeting of the Canadian Bar Association, which represents about 36,000 lawyers and others in the legal profession. He emphasized the importance of access to justice. He recalled a recent visit to a pro bono legal centre, where lawyers provide free legal services.
“Pro bono work is vital,” he told the audience of lawyers in a recorded address. He called it a professional duty. “Every effort makes a difference.”
He also provided some small observations at a news conference in Victoria early Monday on the hottest case the top court is currently facing: Quebec’s Bill 21.
The Supreme Court takes an average of four months to decide whether to hear or decline a case. In January, after almost nine months of deliberations, the court said it would hear an appeal of the Bill 21 case from Quebec. The provincial government used Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – the notwithstanding clause – to ban the wearing of religious symbols on the job among public servants such as teachers.
It is an intensely political case and will likely be one of the court’s biggest decisions in years.
“We provide the time necessary to properly issue the right decision,” Chief Justice Wagner said of the long deliberation. “You mention an average – that’s an average. It depends on many aspects.”
The Bill 21 appeal will not be heard before the fall. There is a similar Section 33 case, with a judgment pending, at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. That court decision – on pronouns in schools – will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Wagner parried a question about how the top court might grapple the two Section 33 cases together. “It’s a hypothetical situation,” he said.
At the public forum Monday afternoon, the three justices received a warm welcome from a crowd of about 150 people in an auditorium at the Victoria Conference Centre.
Some of the questions, such as those on climate policy and bail for repeat offenders, veered into political ground, and the justices largely sidestepped them.
One person asked how the top court makes sure it hears cases from coast to coast. Justice Kasirer noted some recent statistics showing the geographic array and said, garnering laughs: “I think we’re sort of equally litigious across the country.”
Another question wondered about judicial training, at the top court and in the justice system as a whole. “It’s a lifelong learning experience,” said Justice Karakatsanis. She spoke of a recent seminar she led for trial court judges about being mindful of the “impact of the words we choose to use” in judgments in sexual-assault cases.
The justices were asked if they had ever changed their minds on a big legal question. Justice Kasirer related a story in which he felt certain in his conclusion, but was then gently prodded by a colleague to reconsider.
“We profit from the perspective of others,” he said.
Asked about the composition of the court, Chief Justice Wagner noted that it is a majority of women, five of the nine – “it took 150 years,” he said, to laughs – and for the first time there is an Indigenous justice, Michelle O’Bonsawin, and a racialized justice, Mahmud Jamal.
“People could ask, you know, why,” he said of judicial diversity. “Because society has to recognize itself on the bench. Efforts have to be made – and were made – to make the courts more representative of society.”