If judicial council determines Justice Russell Brown’s conduct was serious enough, he could be the first Supreme Court Justice removed from the bench through a public trial
Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown is facing the unprecedented possibility for a judge on Canada’s most powerful court of being judged himself in a public trial potentially lasting weeks in front of a national disciplinary body.
“The process is there when someone feels a judge has not conducted himself or herself appropriately,” said Adèle Kent, a former chief judicial officer of the National Judicial Institute, which trains judges. “In any job, there needs to be some process of accountability.” Instead, he promptly passed the complaint through to its second stage – a review by the council’s conduct-committee chair, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Hinkson.
On Jan. 31, Chief Justice Hinkson informed Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Brown. Chief Justice Wagner acted just as promptly as Mr. Giroux had. The day after he was informed, he placed Justice Brown on an indefinite paid leave of absence, the court said on Tuesday, leaving the nine-member court with just eight.
Or Chief Justice Hinkson could send it on to the third stage, a review panel made up of four judges and a layperson, if he decides “that the matter may be serious enough to warrant the removal of the judge,” the council’s bylaws say. “It’s all new and uncharted,” said David Sterns, a former president of the Ontario Bar Association, of Justice Brown’s case.
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