From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Justin Trudeau’s Minister of Justice announced 20 judicial appointments of Liberal-leaning judges to various Canadians courts in just one day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stacking Canadian courts with Liberal judges before he steps down as Liberal leader.  

On March 3, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani, under the direction of Trudeau, announced 20 judicial appointments of Liberal-leaning judges to various Canadians courts just weeks before Trudeau is expected to leave office.

The announcements include appointments to the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court, and the provincial courts of Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.   

Indeed, according to government information from Blacklock’s Reporter, Trudeau’s last days in office have been busy. Since announcing his resignation on January 6, Trudeau has made 104 federal appointments, including judges, diplomats, “special advisors,” and federal boards.  

In just the past two months, Trudeau has named Liberal appointees to the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health, Canadian Cultural Property Expert Review Board, Canadian Energy Regulator, Canadian High Arctic Research Station, Canadian Museum of Nature, Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission. 

Notably, none of Trudeau’s 104 appointments can be challenged, as he suspended Parliament until March 24. This maneuver buys the Liberal Party a couple months’ time to select a new leader and rebrand their government.    

As it stands, Trudeau is scheduled to stay on as prime minister until Liberals elect a new leader at an internal election scheduled for March 9.

Campaign Life Coalition’s Pete Baklinski responded to Trudeau’s judicial appointments on X, saying, “Nothing to see here. Trudeau, before he’s gone, is only stacking the courts across Canada with judges who think like he does. Business as usual. Move on.”  

During his time in office, Trudeau has become well-known for appointing Liberal-friendly judges to Canadian courts. Judicial appointments have become increasingly important in recent years, as many Canadians are forced to defend their basic freedoms in the courts.

In September 2024, a Trudeau-appointed judge sentenced Freedom Convoy-inspired protesters to six years in prison for their part in the protest against COVID mandates. 

Similarly, in November, a Trudeau-appointed Ontario judge dismissed an appeal from Toronto Catholic District School Board Trustee Mike Del Grande to drop charges for having objected to adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” as protected classes in the Toronto Catholic board’s code of conduct policy. 

From the Fraser Institute

By Jock Finlayson

It’s no exaggeration to describe the Trudeau years as almost a “lost decade” for Canadian prosperity.

The Justin Trudeau era is ending, after nine-and-a-half years as prime minister. His exit coincides with the onset of a trade crisis with the United States. Trudeau leaves behind a stagnant Canadian economy crippled by dwindling productivity, a long stretch of weak business investment, and waning global competitiveness. These are problems Trudeau chose to ignore throughout his tenure. His successors will not have that luxury.

It’s no exaggeration to describe the Trudeau years as almost a “lost decade” for Canadian prosperity. Measured on a per-person basis, national income today is barely higher than it was in 2015, after stripping out the effects of inflation. On this core metric of citizen wellbeing, Canada has one of the worst records among all advanced economies. We have fallen far behind the U.S., where average real income has grown by 15 per cent over the same period, and most of Europe and Japan, where growth has been in the range of 5-6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s debt has doubled on Trudeau’s watch, and both federal government spending and the size of the public service have ballooned, even as service levels have generally deteriorated. Housing in Canada has never been more expensive relative to average household incomes, and health care has never been harder to access. The statistics on crime point to a decline in public safety in the last decade.

Reviving prosperity will be the most critical task facing Trudeau’s successor. It won’t be easy, due in part to a brewing trade war with the U.S. and the retreat from open markets and free trade in much of the world. But a difficult external environment is no reason for Canada to avoid tackling the domestic impediments that discourage economic growth, business innovation and entrepreneurial wealth creation.

In a recent study, a group of economists and policy advisors outlined an agenda for renewed Canadian prosperity. Several of their main recommendations are briefly summarized below.

Return to the balanced budget policies embraced by the Chretien/Martin and Harper governments from 1995 to 2015. Absent a recession, the federal government should not run deficits. And the next government should eliminate ineffective spending programs and poor-performing federally-funded agencies.

Reform and reduce both personal and business income taxes. Canada’s overall income tax system is increasingly out of line with global best practise and has become a major barrier to attracting private-sector investment, top talent and world-class companies. A significant overhaul of the country’s tax policies is urgently needed.

Retool Ottawa’s existing suite of climate and energy policies to reduce the economic damage done by the long list of regulations, taxes, subsidies and other measures adopted Trudeau. Canada should establish realistic goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, not politically manufactured “targets” that are manifestly out of reach. Our climate policy should reflect the fact that Canada’s primary global comparative advantage is as a producer and exporter of energy and energy-intensive goods, agri-food products, minerals and other industrial raw materials which collectively supply more than half of the country’s exports.

Finally, take a knife to interprovincial barriers to trade, investment and labour mobility. These long-standing internal restrictions on commerce increase prices for consumers, inhibit the growth of Canadian-based companies, and result in tens of billions of dollars in lost economic output. The next federal government should lead a national effort to strengthen the Canadian “common market” by eliminating such barriers.

Jock Finlayson

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute