Some hearings by the Canadian Judicial Council into the conduct of judges

Federal Justice Robin Camp is resigning after the Canadian Judicial Council recommended he be removed from the bench after making inappropriate remarks when he was a provincial court judge presiding over a sex assault trial in Calgary.

Here are some other cases the council has considered:

1996: Justice Jean Bienvenue of the Superior Court of Quebec resigned after an inquiry panel recommended his removal from the bench. Bienvenue was found to have had “an aggravating lack of sensitivity” after remarking during a trial that women could “sink to depths to which even the vilest man could not sink” and saying Jews who died in Nazi gas chambers did not suffer.

2003: Justice Bernard Flynn of the Superior Court of Quebec was found to have made “inappropriate and unacceptable” public comments to a reporter about a property sale that involved his wife. A panel concluded he should have refrained from speaking “in keeping with his duty to act in a reserved manner.” But it ruled the comments did not warrant removing Flynn from the bench.

2003: Justice Jean-Guy Boilard of the Superior Court of Quebec was investigated at the request of Quebec’s attorney general after recusing himself from what was already a lengthy and costly Hells Angels trial. Boilard said he had lost the “moral authority” to preside after a letter from the judicial council criticized him for his remarks to a defence lawyer at an unrelated bail hearing. The trial had to start over with a new jury. The inquiry found Boilard was within his rights to recuse himself and said he should not be removed from the bench.

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2009: Justice Paul Cosgrove of the Ontario Superior Court resigned after a panel recommended he lose his job for, among other things, abusing his judicial powers and “inappropriate interference with RCMP activities.” Cosgrove had stayed proceedings in a murder trial after ruling that the Crown and police had repeatedly violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — a decision that was overturned and heavily criticized by an Appeal Court.

2014: The resignation of Justice Lori Douglas of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench put an end to a long-delayed inquiry into accusations she sexually harassed a man and failed to disclose the existence of sexually explicit photos of her on the Internet when applying for her job. The inquiry had stalled in 2012 amid procedural wrangling and complaints from her lawyer that the inquiry panel had shown bias against Douglas.

2017: There are calls for the judicial council to look into remarks by Judge Gregory Lenehan in his acquittal of a Halifax taxi driver charged with sexually assaulting an intoxicated young woman in his cab. Lenehan ruled that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman did not consent to sexual activity. He said: “A drunk can consent.” The Crown has said it will appeal the acquittal.

The Canadian Press