The Courts.

Alexander David Kurke is a criminal lawyer in Sudbury, Ontario.

As part of the Canadian Democratic Audit series, this volume explores how the courts perform as one of the three main branches of Canada’s democratic life.

Chapter 1 provides admirably succinct overviews of the functioning and mechanics of the Canadian court system and the manner in which judges are appointed. Greene freely discusses weaknesses that many feel still remain in the processes by which judges are selected, particularly by the federal government. In the second chapter, Greene focuses appropriately on public participation in the justice system. His discussions about judicial selection, participation as litigants and witnesses, and the jury system are clearly written introductions to the topics. He lavishes great attention on the role of expert witnesses as means of funnelling public interest data into the process.

In the third chapter of the book, Greene examines the inclusiveness of the justice system by considering how effectively it draws women, Aboriginal people, visible minorities, and immigrants into the ranks of lawyers, judges, and court staff. Chapter 4 is mainly concerned with the independence of the judiciary and the development in Canada of unique manners of promoting and protecting that independence. Judicial discipline, and its potential impact on judicial independence, is also extensively considered.

In Chapter 5, Greene summarizes numerous Supreme Court cases, mostly from the Charter era, dealing with issues of equality, security of the person, freedom of expression, privacy, freedom of religion, voting rights, and Native rights in order to demonstrate how the courts can foster democratic inclusiveness and participation. In a brief final chapter, Greene summarizes his views of the current state of the courts in furthering Canadian democracy.

This book will be a welcome resource for high school civics classes or undergraduate political science courses. Each chapter concludes with a handy summary of the strengths and weaknesses of that aspect of Canadian courts covered in the chapter, and the book also offers useful summaries of additional reading on the various topics.