Statistics regarding Judicial Applicants and Appointees

October 29, 2019 – October 28, 2020

On October 20, 2016, the Government of Canada announced reforms to the superior courts judicial appointments process. As part of these changes and in order to increase transparency and rigour, the Government mandated the Office of the Commissioner for Judicial Affairs to collect and publish statistics and demographic information on judicial applicants and appointees. Based on voluntary disclosure by candidates through self-identification in the Questionnaire for judicial appointment, these statistics relate to diversity (see p. 3 of the candidates’ Questionnaire) and language proficiency (see p. 6 of the Questionnaire).

Total Gender Diversity Language Proficiency in both Official Languages
Male Female Other Indigenous Visible Minority Ethnic/Cultural Group or other Person with Disability LGBTQ2 Woman Read court materials Discuss legal matters Converse with counsel Understand oral submissions Write decisions2 Conduct hearings2 All 6 abilities2
Applications Received 397 190 207 0 12 34 67 9 22 207 161 142 136 147 105 109 104
Candidates Assessed 374 193 181 0 12 51 74 7 23 181 159 125 125 131 84 95 82
Candidates Highly Rec.1 76 38 38 0 2 11 10 0 10 38 34 25 26 25 16 18 16
Candidates Recommended1 94 48 46 0 2 16 20 1 5 46 43 35 35 37 22 26 21
Candidates Unable to Rec.1 204 107 97 0 8 24 44 6 8 97 82 65 64 69 46 51 45
Judges Appointed 60 21 39 0 2 10 8 0 6 39 22 19 21 21 7 10 7

Please note that in addition to the 60 candidates appointed, 22 other judges were appointed or elevated to other courts during the same period; 12 men and 10 women. For example, this would include judges appointed to courts of appeal from the trial level courts. There were therefore 82 appointments during this period.

1. Please note that in their application, candidates may apply to more than one court. A candidate can therefore obtain a rating of "highly recommended" for one court, "recommended" for another and "unable to recommend" for yet another court. For ease of reference, the above statistics reflect the highest rating candidates may have received from the Judicial Advisory Committees.

2. Please note that two questions regarding language proficiency in both official languages were added to the Questionnaire (p. 6) in November 2017. However, some of the candidates were assessed and appointed during this period based on the previous Questionnaire. In fact, of the 60 judges appointed during this period, 30 used the old Questionnaire while 30 used the new one. Of these 60 judges, 15 answered "yes" to all questions related to language proficiency in both official languages in the Questionnaire they completed.



Periods:


Please note that statistics prior to October 2016 can be found on the Report of Activity of the Judicial Advisory Committees across Canada page.