Statistics regarding Judicial Applicants and Appointees
October 29, 2020 – October 28, 2021
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 | 227 | 113 | 114 | 0 | 6 | 40 | 54 | 6 | 10 | 114 | 95 | 76 | 79 | 81 | 58 | 62 | 58 |
Candidates Assessed | 360 | 182 | 178 | 0 | 14 | 36 | 61 | 10 | 23 | 178 | 136 | 118 | 116 | 121 | 86 | 92 | 86 |
Candidates Highly Rec.1 | 85 | 44 | 41 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 41 | 34 | 30 | 28 | 32 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
Candidates Recommended1 | 93 | 42 | 51 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 51 | 35 | 28 | 31 | 30 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
Candidates Unable to Rec.1 | 181 | 95 | 86 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 41 | 7 | 12 | 86 | 67 | 60 | 57 | 59 | 41 | 47 | 41 |
Judges Appointed | 71 | 31 | 40 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 40 | 28 | 22 | 21 | 24 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
Please note that in addition to the 71 candidates appointed, 13 other judges were appointed or elevated to other courts during the same period; 8 men and 5 women. For example, this would include judges appointed to courts of appeal from the trial level courts. There were therefore 84 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 71 judges appointed during this period, 14 used the old Questionnaire while 57 used the new one. Of these 71 judges, 20 answered "yes" to all questions related to language proficiency in both official languages in the Questionnaire they completed.
Periods:
- October 28, 2023 – October 28, 2024
- October 29, 2022 – October 27, 2023
- October 29, 2021 – October 28, 2022
- October 28, 2020 – October 29, 2021
- October 28, 2019 – October 29, 2020
- October 28, 2018 – October 28, 2019
- October 28, 2017 – October 27, 2018
- October 21, 2016 – October 27, 2017
- Date modified: