Judge me
Paul Martin has picked Madam Justice Louise Charron and Madam Justice Rosalie Abella (both from Ontario; Charron is a bilingual francophone) to fill the vacancies on the Supreme Court, announces every single news outlet in Canada. Some of the news outlets I’ve linked to are, um, right-wing. I’m amused by the headline on the last link.
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler (who is my MP) will field questions today about the appointment. These questions will go something like “You chose them because they’re women, didn’t you?” (4 of 9 justices will be women) and “You chose them because they’re both for gay marriage and this will make it easier for you in the fall, didn’t you?” (both have made same-sex marriage rulings in Ontario)
The answers to both will be no, but the real answers to both will be “in part”. I have absolutely no doubt that these two judges are eminently qualified. But the Liberals have been working, a little bit, to increase women’s participation, given internal irritation by women in the party that they hadn’t been. And both are pro-gay marriage. What I’ve read suggests there’s not much else similar about them: Abella is activist, while Charron is more middle-of-the-road, but in a fairly liberal, Canadian way.