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disclosure forms for several years of each sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice. (Click on the name of a justice on the right, then click on the listing for finan- cial disclosure reports on the left.) That's how I found out that in 2008 (the most recent filing year) Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife had investments in 57 public companies and mutual funds, including, for example, Microsoft Corp. stock worth between $100,001 and $250,000 (the chief justice's net worth is estimated to be about $6 mil- lion). That's how I know that in 2008 Clarence Thomas earned $333,334 in book royalties for his autobiography My Grandfather's Son. That's how I discov- ered that in July 2008 Stephen Breyer travelled to France, Austria, and Japan; in September he was back in France; in October he went to England: all along the way, he was reimbursed by a vari- ety of organizations for transportation, lodging, and meals. There's none of this in Canada. As I say, there is no financial disclosure requirement for judges (nor for mem- bers of Parliament or cabinet minis- ters). The public can't get this informa- tion. When it comes to judicial conflict of interest, there is complete reliance on a judge either disclosing to the parties anything that might be a problem and seeking their agreement to his continu- ing, or disqualifying himself. There is one pertinent tab on the Supreme Court's web site, with the baf- fling and portentous name of "proac- tive disclosure." But steel yourself for disappointment. There's nothing about our chief justice's jewelry. All you'll find of interest is the travel and hospi- tality expenses of Roger Bilodeau, the Supreme Court registrar. In case you were wondering, from Dec. 2, 2009 to March 1, 2010, Bilodeau spent $973.71 on hospitality, and nothing on travel. But from Sept. 2 to Dec. 1, 2009, he spent $21,495.06 on travel and $4,573.72 on hospitality expenses. This included trips to Tel Aviv, Lausanne, Vienna, and Paris (business class, judging by the air fares). In the three months before that, the registrar spent $24,375.42 on travel, flying business class to Paris, Benin, Dublin, and London. Perhaps, in his www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2010 17 ntitled-5 1 5/19/10 11:51:20 AM international peregrinations, Bilodeau bumped into Breyer (see above). I think Supreme Court of Canada judges (all judges, for that matter) should be required to make full, annual, public disclosure of their assets and liabilities. Let's be sensible about it: we don't care what kind of car they drive or what sort of watch they wear. But we do care very much, or should, about how much money they've got, where it came from, and how it's invested. The Canadian public is entitled to have this information about senior public ser- vants, as part of a broad concept of good governance. With it, we would have a bet- ter understanding of who our judges are. Our confidence in what they do would be increased. Rumours would be easily dispelled. (I have frequently encountered Supreme Court of India's asset page: supremecourtofindia.nic. in/assets.htm Oyez web site: www.oyez.org/ courts/roberts/robt4 speculation by lawyers about a judge's financial affairs, and conjecture about why a particular judge didn't sit on this or that case.) Judges themselves would ben- efit from transparency, and their public stature would increase. The routine objection is violation of privacy. The answer to that is easy. Judges don't have the same privacy rights as ordinary citizens. It's part of the price they pay for holding high pub- lic office. It's part of the price they pay for sitting in judgment. Mea culpa. And now for something completely different. Several readers pointed out that in my last "Top Court Tales" I mixed up two Monty Python films, confusing Holy Grail with Life of Brian. My apologies to Monty Python fans everywhere. Philip Slayton has been dean of a law school and senior partner of a major Canadian law firm. Visit him online at philipslayton.com.