The Tenth Justice

The process by which Supreme Court judges are appointed is traditionally a quiet affair, but this certainly wasn’t the case when Prime Minister Stephen Harper selected Justice Marc Nadon for appointment to Canada’s highest court. Here, for the first time, is the complete story of “the Nadon Reference” – one of the strangest sagas in Canadian legal history.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, controversy swirled and debate raged: as a federal court judge, was Marc Nadon eligible for one of the three seats traditionally reserved for Quebec? Then, on 21 March 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada broke new ground in statutory interpretation and consitutional law by releasing the Reference re Supreme Court Act, ss 5 and 6. In The Tenth Justice, Carissima Mathen and Michael Plaxton set out the history of judicial appointments, the legal and political context that gave rise to the Reference re Supreme Court, and the impact that the decision has had on legal and constitutional debate in Canada.
With detailed historical and legal analysis, including never-before-published interviews, The Tenth Justice explains how the Nadon Reference came to be a case at all, the issues at stake, and its legacy.