Ontario attorney general Doug Downey is accepting applications for the position of Ontario chief justice. In a rare turnabout in the process of selecting senior legal personnel in Ontario, Downey has appointed himself as the sole contact for judges wanting to assume the top judicial role in the province. He is very obviously attempting to politicize the judiciary.
It is similar to the attempt of premier Doug Ford, four years ago, to appoint an unqualified crony from the Toronto police service to commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police. It could only have been worse if it was to be the top judge of Ontario’s courts.
And I strongly suggest that it would be bad news to let the MPP from my electoral district control that process. In America, they have been politicizing the courts for many years—and you have seen where it gets the Americans. And I sincerely doubt that we would do any better here with obviously political appointees.
MPP Doug Downey is not even resident in my riding. He is the go-to guy for the Tories from Severn, Ontario and has served on Orillia council. He was dumped on my riding to keep Patrick Brown out in the cold. Downey might appear affable and friendly but, in my opinion, is nothing but a conservative ward healer. This guy sits at the cabinet table as the chief legal officer of the province. Yet he obviously has not convinced the cabinet that their promotion of highway 413, when developers have bought up much of the key land of value, makes the government look corrupt.
And while there were small adjustments made in the past within Ontario’s Greenbelt, Ford’s friends are likely to make out gangbusters with the huge chunk of Greenbelt that he is releasing to them. A competent attorney general would not ignore such a blatant and quasilegal action.
It is not that I would ever suggest that we remain locked in the past. The normal procedure has been for the retiring chief justice to advise the attorney general of which of the experienced judges might be qualified to replace him or her. I have to admit that the retiring judge would have the best knowledge of the most qualified underlings for the job. Making a political appointment lacks class and character.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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