The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) will look into whether two Ontario Superior Court judges and at least 15 tribunal members continued to make donations to political parties after being appointed to the position by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

According to the National Post, the decision to launch an investigation follows reports by the outlet in partnership with the Investigative Journalism Foundation. 

Data provided by Elections Canada is being analyzed to see if any of the judges or tribunal members have violated the ethical guidelines outlined by the CJC.

Political activity following an appointment is strictly prohibited by the guidelines, which state: “Judges must cease all partisan political activity upon the assumption of judicial office,” 

The guidelines also state that a magistrate cannot be a member of a political party, attend their fundraisers nor make donations themselves. 

The CJC has the authority to investigate a judge following complaints that their continued service would “undermine public confidence in the impartiality, integrity or independence of the judge or of their office.” as stated in the Judges Act.

Jula Hughes, dean of the law faculty at Lakehead University noted that while some of these ethical guidelines are “aspirational” or “advisory,” others are more cut and dry.

“Political donations fall … in that second category of you’re just not allowed. All partisan activity must cease and that’s a must.” said Hughes.

Elections Canada records show that Diana Piccoli, a Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario allegedly made at least three donations to the Liberal Party of Canada following her appointment as judge in 2019. 

Another Toronto-based superior court judge, appointed in 2021, is alleged to have made donations in 2022 to the Conservative Party of Canada as well as to Pierre Poilievre’s leadership campaign however there are some discrepancies between the donations database and the appointment records.

On August 8, the IJF and the National Post presented their findings to the CJC which prompted Johanna Laporte, a spokesperson for the council to launch a probe into these cases.

“While the information provided … does not make it clear that it relates specifically to the two judges you speak of, in that contributions might have been made by people with the same name, the Council will examine this more closely and investigate as may be necessary, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Judges Act,” said Laporte in a written statement.

Wayne MacKay, a retired law professor of Dalhousie University expressed his concerns over the notion of a sitting justice continuing to make donations to a political party.

“The independence of the judiciary, of course, is a very important principle within our constitutional structure,”  said MacKay in an interview. “The benches must be independent and seen to be independent from the political branches of government.”

“It’s really getting to a point that it’s just about as important that the administrative tribunal side of our judicial structure be treated in a similar way to the judges as being independent and seem to be independent. Contributing to a political party obviously takes away from that,” continued MacKay.

At least 15 of the 1,309 judicial and tribunal members appointed by the Trudeau government have made donations to the Liberal Party of Canada since 2016. These donations were made despite Prime Minister Trudeau signing guidelines that called for them to avoid political activity as much as possible, the year prior. 

The guidelines were included in a 2015 document entitled Open and Accountable Government, which read: “In light of the nature of their duties, members of quasi-judicial bodies are subject to a much more stringent standard and should generally avoid all political activities,” 

Many believe that the growing number of quasi-judicial bodies in Canada gives all the more reason for tribunal members to avoid partisan political activities such as party donations. 

“All public office holders have a responsibility to make sure their political activities are in line with their duty to perform their public duties in a non-partisan manner,” wrote Acadia University associate professor Erin Crandall in a statement. 

“The public aspect of political donations means, in my view, that donations from members of tribunal/quasi-judicial bodies should not be permitted,” Crandall added.

According to data from Elections Canada and federal appointment records, Liberal appointees from the following tribunals have made donations to political parties: the Parole Board of Canada, the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Social Security Tribunal, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada, the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, since 2016.