2019-20 Departmental Plan

Corporate information

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Raison d’être

The department provides services to the Canadian judiciary and promotes judicial independence. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada is responsible for this organization.

Mandate and role

The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada (FJA) was created in 1978 under an Act of Parliament to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and put federally appointed judges at arm's length from the Department of Justice. Our mandate extends to promoting the better administration of justice and providing support for the federal judiciary.

The Judges Act ^[1]provides for the designation of an officer named the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. One of the roles and responsibilities of the Commissioner is to act on behalf of the Minister of Justice in matters related to the administration of Part I of the Judges Act.

FJA administers the judicial appointments process on behalf of the Minister of Justice, overseeing 17 judicial advisory committees which evaluate candidates pursuant to a revised superior courts judicial appointments process that came into effect October 2016. The Minister of Justice has also given FJA the mandate to administer the Supreme Court of Canada Appointments Selection Panel process, established to assess candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

FJA provides all members of the Canadian judiciary with JUDICOM – a secure on-line system for communication and collaboration amongst members of the judiciary.

To advance bilingualism and bijuralism, FJA develops a curriculum, and provides a language training program in both official languages to enable judges to improve their second language proficiency and legal terminology.

Additionally, FJA coordinates initiatives with various government and non-government stakeholders related to the Canadian judiciary’s role in international cooperation.

FJA publishes the Federal Courts Reports. That section of FJA is responsible for selecting and publishing Federal Court of Appeal and Federal Court decisions in both official languages. Selected decisions undergo a thorough editorial process that includes copy editing and citation verification, the preparation of headnotes and captions, and translation accuracy confirmation.