POLICE NAMED TO JUSTICE PANELS

Police Will Help Pick Canada's Judges

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government has named the first police
officials in Canada who will have a say in the appointment of judges.

The officials range from a Vancouver detective who worked on the
Pickton case to a Toronto police-union boss who called for a tougher
law-enforcement approach to gun violence.

They will sit on the judicial advisory committees that assess
judgeship applicants, a fact that is raising concerns that the balance
of power on the committees has shifted in favour of the Minister of
Justice.

Critics also worry that the Tories are jeopardizing the independence
of the judiciary in order to implement their tough-on-crime agenda.

"It gives the perception that the deck is being stacked," said J.
Parker MacCarthy, the president of the Canadian Bar Association. Those
concerns were dismissed by a Justice Ministry spokesperson. .

The committees reach a decision by consensus in most cases. Voting is
very rare, the spokesperson said, and in the end the minister has the
ultimate say over who becomes a judge.

The police officials who will advise the minister include Dave Wilson,
the head of the Toronto Police Association. Mr. Wilson has often
called for a tougher law-enforcement approach to solve that city's
gun-violence problem.

In September of 2005, Mr. Wilson was particularly critical of an
initiative to identify police officers to the public through the use
of name tags.

"Instead of focusing on the serious issues of gun violence and the
shortage of police officers to protect the public, they have chosen to
focus their time and money on the issue of police officers wearing
name tags," he said then.

Mr. Wilson will sit on one of Ontario's three judicial advisory
committees. Karl Walsh, the president of the Ontario Provincial Police
Association, will be sitting on another committee in that province.
Earlier last year, Mr. Walsh criticized the OPP for not letting its
officers wear full riot gear during the Caledonia native standoff.

Other nominees include Vancouver Police Sergeant Sheila Sullivan, who
worked on the unit trying to find the remains of slain prostitutes in
the Pickton case.

Mr. MacCarthy said he was pleased with the level of experience of each
of these officials, but worried that their careers as police officers
would hinder their partiality.

"You now are seeking significant input from the particular group which
themselves are going to be supervised by the courts," he said.