Just before Canadian parliamentarians took their summer break, Canada’s Justice Minister Peter MacKay faced criticism for the lack of women appointed to federal courts, and for his comments saying that women weren’t applying sufficiently for the positions.
These, and other comments about the challenges facing women, raised the ire of number of people within the legal community, and also raised questions about how the Minister could make the remark that more women should apply, since unlike some other jurisdictions in Canada, the federal government does not keep data on how many applications it receives from women and how many end up being appointed judges.
Approximately 34 per cent of federal judges are women, but some observers point out the rate at which the federal government appoints women has actually slowed down since the election of the Conservative Party in 2006.
To find out more, RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda spoke to Erin Crandall a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Studies at Canada’s Queen’s University. Dr Crandall’s research focuses on women in Canada’s courts.
Audio of this interview will be on line shortly.
More information:
Canadian Lawyer Magazine – Cracking the system – here
Canadian Press – MacKay still on hot seat over female judges – here
Erin Crandall on academia.org – here
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