Demographic statistics on diversity in the judiciary

Judicial Applicants and Appointees

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).

October 29, 2022 – October 27, 2023

Total Gender Diversity Language Proficiency in both Official Languages
Male Female Other Indigenous individual Racialized individual Ethnic/Cultural Group or other Individual with disability 2SLGBTQI+ individual Woman Read court materials Discuss legal matters Converse with counsel Understand oral submissions Write decisions Conduct hearings All 6 abilities
Applications Received 410 207 203 0 15 53 84 8 27 203 187 156 150 161 126 131 125
Candidates Assessed 315 160 155 0 9 37 64 6 12 155 149 120 123 126 99 104 98
Candidates Highly Rec.1 73 41 32 0 3 8 12 1 3 32 31 23 23 24 20 20 20
Candidates Recommended1 68 29 39 0 3 10 12 2 2 39 30 23 24 23 19 19 18
Candidates Unable to Rec.1 174 90 84 0 3 19 40 3 7 84 88 74 76 79 60 65 60
Newly Appointed Judges 68 31 37 0 1 9 17 0 4 37 32 28 29 30 27 28 27

Please note that in addition to the 68 newly appointed judges, 19 other judges were appointed or elevated to other courts during the same period; 11 men and 8 women. For example, this would include judges appointed to courts of appeal from the trial level courts. There were therefore 87 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.



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.

Judges currently on the bench

The Government of Canada has committed to tracking data on the diversity of judicial appointees. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs therefore publishes annual demographic statistics, not only regarding newly appointed judicial candidates and judges, but also, below, regarding all federally appointed judges. These statistics include judges appointed after 2016, who completed a questionnaire following reforms brought to the appointment process which included specific questions relating to diversity, and also those appointed before 2016, who completed a questionnaire which included a more general question regarding diversity. Following a detailed analysis carried out by the Office of the Commissioner of the responses from each of those judges appointed before 2016, the information has been classified according to the categories established in the current questionnaire.

As of February 1, 2024

 

Number of
Judges

Indigenous
individual

Racialized
individual

Ethnic/Cultural
Group or other

Individual with
Disability

2SLGBTQI+
individual

Woman

Judges appointed
before 2016

647

5

16

44

2

1

271

Judges appointed
after 2016

533

17

60

80

4

31

281

TOTAL:

1180

22

76

124

6

32

552