Of the 202 judicial appointments Virani says he has made since he succeeded David Lametti as justice minister and attorney general on July 26, 2023, 108 jurists (53 per cent) are women and 45 (22 per cent) are racialized, the Toronto lawyer told the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) virtual annual meeting on Feb. 4, 2025.
The number of Indigenous jurists appointed to the federal benches has increased nearly five-fold since the Trudeau government assumed office in 2015, as has the number of racialized jurists, he said.
“I’m incredibly proud of the calibre of judges that I have appointed over the past 19 months,” Virani said in remarks at the Ontario Bar Association’s Conference Centre in Toronto. “They are brilliant legal minds and brilliant legal leaders, and they represent Canada’s diversity in ways never before achieved.”
Justice Minister Arif Virani
Since the Liberals launched their new judicial appointments process in 2016, “the bench has steadily evolved to look more and more like the country it serves,” Virani said.
He pointed, for example, to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s groundbreaking appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada of the court’s first racialized judge (Justice Mahmud Jamal) and first Indigenous judge (Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin).
“When Canadians can see themselves reflected on the highest courts of this country, it has a direct impact on strengthening their confidence in both our courts and the administration of justice in Canada,” Virani said.
Moreover, since Justice Mary Moreau’s historic appointment in 2023, for the first time five of the top court’s nine members are women. “That is something that no other G7 country can boast,” Virani said.
Appointing judges remains one of his “top priorities,” he said.
“I’ve achieved the fastest rate of judicial appointments of any justice minister in this country’s history”—reducing to 31 the high number of vacancies that existed when he joined the Cabinet, he noted.
To all the lawyers who may be considering a position on the bench, “my message is simple: apply,” he advised. “What I need is a very strong and deep applicant pool in order to continue appointing distinguished jurists to the courts right across the country.
In other remarks, Virani said he and the Department of Justice are “moving quickly” to get Canada’s first Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission up and running, following the passage of the independent body’s enabling legislation last December.
There are many procedural hoops to jump through, Virani noted, including getting the requisite funding in place, fixing the commission’s location, and putting the first commissioners in place.
“The need for this type of commission is absolutely clear,” the justice minister stressed. He cited the fact that of the 30 successful miscarriage of justice applications made under the ministerial review process in the previous more-than two decades, 23 of the applicants were white. And all were male. “That is fundamentally unfair.”
Moreover, “exactly zero have involved women. Zero. The notion that there isn't a single female person who is an offender in a correctional facility in this country who’s been wrongfully convicted is just statistically improbable, and that is a troubling statistic, and that's the type of thing that motivates me to get this work done and to get it. . .done fast so that we can address people who are wrongfully convicted.”
Virani emphasized that in addition to harming individuals who are “festering in a jail cell when they shouldn't be there,” a wrongful conviction is “an injustice for the victim of that crime because the victims of those crimes deserve true accountability. And if they think that the Jane Doe or John Doe that [was convicted] . . .is not the actual culprit, then the culprit roams free, and there isn't the accountability that our justice system is meant to be based upon, and that's something that we all have a vested interest in correcting.”
Virani called the “systemic over-representation” in prisons of Indigenous, Black and marginalized people “a national shame.” The commission will increase access to justice for those individuals, he said.
Virani also spoke of his government’s efforts to combat “the terrible rise in hate crime” in Canada, especially in the last year against Jews, who have endured antisemitic threats and hate crimes in their synagogues, schools and communities.
Virani said he and federal Public Safety Minister David McGuinty will host in Ottawa a national forum on combatting antisemitism next month (originally scheduled for February), which will bring together federal, provincial, and municipal leaders as well as police and prosecutors to discuss the growing public safety threat of antisemitism.
“As a racialized Muslim man, I . . . know too well the devastating impact that the rise of hatred can have in this country,” he observed. “Last week, . . .I sat with the families of the victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting on the evening of January 29 eight years after that event in 2017. It still literally breaks my heart and makes me incredibly angry that Canada has unenviably the lead in the G7 for the number of deaths linked to Islamophobic hatred, which is 11 since 2017.”
Virani confirmed that the federal government will seek to intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in a Quebec appeal involving a constitutional challenge to that province’s controversial “secularism” law (Bill 21) and to the provincial government’s use of the Charter’s s. 33 override (“notwithstanding”) clause.
“The decision that [the judges] render on this matter will have a national impact, and we will be participating as interveners in this litigation 100 per cent,” Virani said, adding that “it’s important for us to participate because the court will be interpreting very important Charter provisions: the right to equality, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of religion. These are fundamental.”
He said the court may also opine “on the usage of the notwithstanding clause and the appropriate parameters of the usage of the notwithstanding clause.”
“I think what we've seen in terms of the pattern of usage, and the escalating usage, of the notwithstanding clause should. . .give lawyers, and those who believe in the rule of law, cause for concern,” said Virani. “We've seen that across multiple provinces over the past several years, but we've also seen it notably being mooted as an idea by two opposition parties in Parliament.”
Given public concerns around the implementation of Canada’s bail laws--which the Official Opposition Conservatives have decried as “Trudeau’s catch and release policy” --Virani was asked by a CBA member “how would you increase public confidence in judicial decision-making regarding bail, while maintaining the foundational principles of bail as enshrined in the Charter?”
There is not enough “substantive data” available right now to show what is actually happening in bail courts, Virani replied. However, he noted that his provincial counterparts have agreed to provide Ottawa with data “so we could understand who's getting bail, who's not getting bail.”
“How many times is bail being contested, or is bail being consented upon?” Virani asked. “If people feel an error is being made, how many times are bail reviews being initiated? How many times is bail being granted as opposed to being denied because of the conditions of the facilities such as the prisons in a given province?”
Answers are needed, “but I think what's critical to shoring up that confidence that Canadians will have in the persons that are deciding bail is that they know that the system is well-resourced with enough police officers, Crowns, JPs and judges, and prisons that are adequately resourced to house [accused] and deal with the issue,” Virani said. “And secondly, that they see the data that shows where the acute issues are and that we work collaboratively together to address this.”
Virani concluded by noting that lawyers do essential work and have stepped up, time and again, during some of the most challenging times in history.
“We are in a time of transition and of incredible challenge — both here at home and around the world,” he said. “We know that around the world, some of the values that we as lawyers, and as Canadians, which we hold dear, are under threat.”
“What I’m asking is that all of you remain vigilant — the rule of law is a precious entity,” he stressed. “The rights we have under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are just as precious. We need to protect them, and we need to stand up for each other, especially the most vulnerable in society.”
“I know that many of you are already working tirelessly, sometimes for free, to fight for the rights of others across this amazing country,” he added. “You as lawyers are on the front lines of the fights for human rights, for dignity, for equality, and you are the people that hold governments to account,” he said. “I would say thank you for that very important work, and I'd ask you to just keep up that fight, because the need for that work is more precious now than ever.”
Photo of Arif Virani: Courtesy Canadian Bar Association
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