Balance
Continued From Page 1
■ Age When Appointed (2007-2011)
In 2010, the latest year for
which figures are available, 40
per cent of law society members
across Canada were women,
according to data obtained by
The Lawyers Weekly from the
Federation of Law Societies of
Canada (43,245 of 108,199 members, not including Nunavut,
which does not track its members’ gender).
Justice Minister Rob Nichol-
son’s press secretary Julie Di
Mambro told The Lawyers
Weekly: “Our government is
guided by the principles of merit
and legal excellence in the selec-
tion and appointment of judges.”
She added that since the
Harper government took office in
February, 2006, 30 per cent of
425 judicial appointments were
women. “Our judicial appoint-
ments will continue to reflect the
percentage of female lawyers who
apply and are recommended by
the Judicial Advisory Commit-
tees from across the country.”
Di Mambro said that the gov-
ernment appointed a woman to
■ Federal Judges Appointed
April 1, 2007 to March 2, 2012
Under 44
9 (4%)
44-56
154 (65%)
Male
Gender
Female
Over 56
73 (31%)
Surely there are more women who are
qualified to be appointed to the Bench.
“
Trinda Ernst, Canadian Bar Association president
the Supreme Court last year (one
of its four appointments to that
court so far), as well as the first
female chief justice of the Quebec
Court of Appeal.
(A Lawyers Weekly count
indicates the latter was the only
one of seven promotions to chief
justice or associate chief justice
that went to a woman since Jan.
1, 2011.)
The Office of the Commis-
sioner for Federal Judicial Affairs
did not respond to repeated
requests to disclose the number
of male and female applicants for
the Bench, and the rate at which
they were approved by the vetting
committees in each of the prov-
inces and territories.
Nearly three-quarters of
appointees came from private
practice. The lawyers’ predominant areas of practice were civil
litigation (57), followed by family
law ( 26), and criminal law ( 19).
Of the 69 appointees who were
not in private practice, 26 were
provincial/territorial judges,
seven were Crown attorneys,
three were registrars, three were
professors, two were masters and
two were deputy ministers.
Over all, the largest number of
judges were appointed in Ontario
(84), followed by Quebec (46),
British Columbia (33), Alberta
( 20), Manitoba ( 13), and Saskatchewan and New Brunswick
at eight each.
The data show 53 per cent of
appointees came from outside
the country’s 10 largest population centres. Among big cities,
Montreal had the most ( 26), perhaps because of the bar’s bilingual nature. For other cities:
Toronto ( 22), Vancouver ( 20),
Ottawa ( 15), and Calgary ( 13). n
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