A former Wynne cabinet minister who once asked Justin Trudeau to put her on the Supreme Court is now looking to become the Chief Justice of Ontario. Nathalie Des Rosiers, a lawyer with a long record of activism, who was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court by Trudeau’s Justice Minister David Lametti in late 2023, has applied for one of the top judicial jobs in the province.

The current Chief Justice for the Ontario Superior Court Justice, Geoffrey B. Morawetz, is set to retire on May 15.

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Under a process put into place in 2016, interested applicants can apply for the job, and Des Rosiers has put her name forward despite a little more than two years of being on the bench. She is part of a field of at least 12 judges, most of whom have spent years hearing cases, but the concern among many in the legal community is that she is the frontrunner with the Carney government in Ottawa due to political connections.

Appointment made by feds

Despite the job title being the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario, the appointment is made by the federal government and not the provincial government.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was one of four premiers who signed an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday, calling for provinces to have a greater say in appointing senior judges. Ford joined Quebec Premier Francois Legault, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in making the case for greater provincial input.

“It is crucial that the selection of superior court judges result from diligent, rigorous, and ethical processes, guaranteeing its independent and non-partisan nature. And it is equally crucial that provincial governments have a substantive role in selection processes of judges of their superior courts to respect the federalism principle,” the premiers wrote.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser reacted to the decision by saying that he’s open to consulting with provinces, but stopped short of offering them a formal role.

Des Rosiers’ appointment as Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario would not be welcomed by the Ford government at Queen’s Park, but more importantly would not be welcomed by a large section of Ontario’s legal and judicial community. Before being appointed to the bench, Des Rosiers had spent much of her career in activist roles.

She spent time in the early 2000s working for the Law Commission of Canada, a government-funded activist group that pushed for “progressive” or left-wing causes to be adopted into law by the government. Des Rosier later spent time from 2009-2013 as General Counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association advocating again for mainly left-wing causes.

She left that job to become Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa.

Resigned from university role

That’s the type of job that someone secures and then retires from, but as part of a pattern, Des Rosiers only lasted a little over three years in that role before she resigned to enter politics. To take the jobs as Member of Provincial Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier, Des Rosier would have taken a significant pay cut, probably more than 50%, to become a backbencher at Queen’s Park.

None of this adds up.

After spending less than three years at Queen’s Park, including time as Minister of Natural Resources in the cabinet of Premier Kathleen Wynne, Des Rosiers resigned to become the Principal of Massey College at the University of Toronto. With just over six years in that job, it’s one of the longest-serving roles she’s held in the last several decades.

Now, after having been a judge for two years and four months, she wants to become Chief Justice for one of the top courts in Ontario. Based on merit, Des Rosiers’ application should be laughed at, but based on politics, it’s a concern.

She’s an activist, she’s a partisan, but she’s also a Liberal who went to Harvard around the same time Prime Minister Mark Carney. As much as the government claims there is a protocol or system in place to make these appointments, ultimately it is a political one and Carney has the last say if he wants.

Appointing Des Rosiers, the activist and partisan Liberal to this post would bring the system of justice into disrepute.

© Edmonton Sun