Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A r C h 2 0 1 5 17 and holds the Order of Canada. Needless to say, when Côté was appointed she was described by the usual suspects as "well- respected," "hard working," someone with "a wealth of legal knowledge," "a legal star," "a dynamo," etc., etc. The Côté appointment brings the number of women on the court back up to four, which is a good thing, but the big surprise was that, once more, Harper passed over well-known and highly respected female members of the Quebec Court of Appeal — Justice France Thibault, for example, or Marie-France Bich — in favour of someone largely unknown and judicially untested. Why did he do that? Not to say that Côté hasn't attract- ed some public attention. She was one of many defence lawyers for Imperial Tobacco in a $27-billion class action suit brought by addicted and ill smok- ers that has dragged on for years and has attracted much criticism. She acted for the (Liberal) Government of Quebec in the extensively reported 2010 inquiry into alleged influence peddling in judi- cial nominations. She replaced Guy Pratte as independent counsel in the Canadian Judicial Council's appallingly inept and doomed inquiry into the Lori Douglas affair (see this month's cover story). Côté was attacked by some — notably Professor Susan Drummond of Osgoode Hall Law School in a passion- ate newspaper article — for demeaning Douglas during the inquiry. When she was appointed to the Supreme Court, newspapers gleefully reported that Côté had had a multi-year court battle with Revenu Québec about income deduction claims of over $200,000 for clothes and personal care items. Suzanne Côté looks more interesting than Clément Gascon, whose curriculum vitae suggests he is safe but dull (despite his "wealth of legal knowledge," etc., etc.). Judges appointed directly to the Supreme Court from legal practice bring a kind of street smarts to the court's delibera- tions, a practical intelligence that those who've plodded up through the judicial ranks for years may have lost. Two of the most effective and compelling judges in recent Supreme Court history were John Sopinka and Ian Binnie (Binnie took the seat made vacant by Sopinka's untime- ly death), both appointed directly from practice. Sopinka and Binnie, each in his own way, shook things up a bit. Perhaps Côté will do the same thing. That would be welcome. But Gascon and Côté remain largely a mystery, just like other Harper picks for the Supreme Court — justices Richard Wagner, Andromache Karakatsanis, Michael Moldaver, Thomas Cromwell, and Marshall Rothstein. You have to go back to 2004, when Paul Martin chose Rosalie Abella, to find someone well known when she was appointed. With Justice Abella, the Canadian people knew whom they were getting (and it worked out pretty well). But generally we haven't a clue, and that is wrong. Serious and public vetting — the way they do it in the United States — would fix this problem. Why don't we do it? Philip Slayton is president of PEN Canada, an organization of writers that protects and promotes freedom of expression. A DAILY BLOG OF CANADIAN LEGAL NEWS LEGALFEEDS.CA FEEDS LEGAL POWERED BY V O T E D BEST NEWS BLOG CLAWBIES 2015 Untitled-1 1 2015-02-12 2:44 PM

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