Selection Process: Supreme Court

selection process: If formally named to the court, it will be a historic first for the province, according to Huffington Post Canada. However, scholars and aboriginal jurists had hoped Trudeau new selection process might set aside the constitutional convention of regionally based appointments, and focus on putting an aboriginal or black judge into the job. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Justice Malcolm Rowe from Newfoundland and Labrador has been nominated for the Supreme Court of Canada. Lightening-Earle said while Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have waited a number of decades for a representative on the court, aboriginal Canadians have deeper historic claims to a place in the judiciary. "They have been waiting a long time, but we've been waiting a little bit longer," she said. "It another white male ... It the exact thing we've been doing for years." Lightening-Earle said in a telephone interview a rare opportunity has been missed, and indigenous lawyers are wondering why they bothered applying to the government advisory board for the position. Principle of diversity needs to shift Wright argues the principle of diversity that lies beneath appointing people from different regions needed to be shifted to recognize the increasing number of Canadians from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. A report in Policy Options magazine estimated earlier this year that just one per cent of Canada 2,160 judges in the provincial superior and lower courts are aboriginal, while three per cent are racial minorities — prompting a Dalhousie University law professor to describe the Canadian bench as a "judiciary of whiteness." Robert Wright, a black social worker who has served on a Nova Scotia board that recommends judicial appointments, said the announcement is a disappointment given the Trudeau government earlier signals it might adjust the system. "There are an increasing number of Canadians who ... are not caught up in what I call the historical regional nature of the various Canadian identities we used to focus on," he said in a telephone interview from Halifax. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.