Statistics regarding Judicial Applicants and Appointees

October 29, 2022 – October 27, 2023

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 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.