The Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association say they won’t help find retired and sitting judges to lead the latest effort to redraw Alberta’s electoral boundaries.
Christopher Samuel, president of the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association, cited reservations in a prior letter from acting Chief Justice of Alberta Dawn Pentelechuk as having motivated the decision.
“Given that [Pentelechuk] has expressed reservations about this selection process and refrained from circulating the letter, the CBA must also respectfully decline the committee’s request,” Samuel wrote.
“The chief justices are the proper entities to circulate this notice, and it would be inappropriate for the CBA to circumvent their decision.”
When an electoral boundaries commission is formed — the body that determines which groups of people vote together in provincial elections — chief justices of the Court of King’s Bench and the Court of Appeal are asked to find out if a judge or retired judge can lead the effort.
In the final report of the most recent commission, chair Justice Dallas Miller suggested the legislature should adopt the majority report of the commission. But if it couldn’t do so, he said it should increase the number of seats in the legislature to 91 from 89 before the next general election.
The government then moved to establish a select special legislative committee (majority UCP) and started a process to seek out a judicial chair for the latest effort.
In a letter read into the legislative record earlier this month by NDP MLA Christina Gray, Pentelechuk wrote that the courts would refrain from delivering a letter from the committee or from providing any input on the selection of a chair.
According to Gray, Pentelechuk wrote that it was based on advice and due to the “irregularity” of the process.
“In taking this position, we make no judgment at this time as to the propriety of the legislation, which was enacted after the Electoral Boundaries Commission completed its work, pursuant to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act,” Gray said, reading from the letter.
UCP MLA Brandon Lunty then sent a letter from the committee to the Ministry of Justice, the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Alberta, requesting that it be circulated to all current and retired judges of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta and the Court of Appeal of Alberta.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Law Society of Alberta wrote that it “respects the authority of the chief justices over their respective courts.”
“We have not, and would not circulate documents or messages to the courts unless specifically requested to do so by the chiefs themselves,” Colleen Brown wrote in an email.
Committee member and NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley said she viewed the process as being “illegitimate,” adding she believes the process is designed for the UCP to “pick their voters.”
“It worries me who they’re going to get to come forward to chair this committee,” Ganley told CBC News.
“I think that most people with ethics who have a lot of respect for process and rights and democracy are going to look at it and be like, no, thank you. I don’t want any part of that.”
She added that the bar association and law society’s decisions indicate they “have chosen to respect the role of the courts; the UCP should pay attention.”
The UCP has said that its goal in forming the all-party committee is to preserve rural representation.
In an emailed statement, Lunty didn’t respond directly to a request for comment from CBC News about the statements from the Law Society and the Canadian Bar Association.
“A meeting to review the expressions of interest will be called in due course,” he wrote.
The deadline to submit an expression of interest was previously extended from May 14 to May 26.
Lunty’s letter was also sent to the presidents of all post-secondary institutions in the province.
Based on the review, the chair is meant to submit a report to the committee on or before Oct. 22.
