The Judicial Power in Canada: The Mirror of a Pluralistic Society

Il potere giudiziario in Canada come specchio di una società pluralistica

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the reflective judiciary in Canada. It especially looks at the composition of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Act provides that three judges must be appointed among judges or lawyers coming from Quebec and the essay tries to survey if the francophone judges reflect the interests of the community they belong to. In order to evaluate this perspective, the article checks if the three judges are used to jointly deliver
dissenting opinions validating the hypothesis that they defend the Quebec identity. The results show a different attitude and thus we can conclude that the presence of francophone judges does not constitute a “francophone party”; it rather contributes to increase the confidence of Quebec people in the federal judiciary and moreover it assures expertise in civil law.