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OTTAWA — The federal Conservatives could raise questions of possible conflict of interest and transparency if they move to appoint cabinet minister Vic Toews as a judge in Manitoba, opposition MPs say.
Published reports yesterday stated that Mr. Toews, the president of the Treasury Board, is being vetted for a federal appointment to Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench.
Rumours that Mr. Toews might not seek re-election have circulated in Ottawa for some time, but his office insists he intends to run again.
However, his spokesman, Mike Storeshaw, would not say yesterday whether Mr. Toews has signed the application form required before he can be considered for a judicial appointment.
“All I know is that he is the nominated candidate and he said he intends to run as the nominated candidate for the next election,” he said.
Opposition MPs said that if he does seek a judgeship, Mr. Toews's role in recommending members of the judicial advisory committee that evaluates applicants for higher-court judgeships in Manitoba could raise a potential conflict.
The committees, set up in each province to recommend candidates to the justice minister for federal judicial appointments, are supposed to ensure applicants are vetted at arm's-length from politicians.
In 2006, Mr. Toews, then the justice minister, restructured the advisory committees so that four of the seven voting members, rather than three, were chosen by the minister, including one drawn from the ranks of the police, while the rest are chosen by lawyers associations and judges.
His successor as justice minister, Rob Nicholson, announced new committees two weeks after he entered the post, in January, 2007, but many of the members had been chosen by Mr. Toews.
One member of the Manitoba committee, Jude Gosselin, told The Globe and Mail last year he was approached about the post by an aide to Mr. Toews.
Winnipeg New Democrat MP Pat Martin said he believes Mr. Toews – a former Crown prosecutor and attorney-general of Manitoba – is qualified, but appointing him through the existing process would raise questions of conflict of interest.
“I think this has inherent conflict of interest built right into it, if Vic Toews had an active role in choosing the oversight committee that will review and vet his appointment,” he said.
Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc noted the justice minister appoints judges, but the advisory committees are intended to ensure that the process is transparent.
“If the person being evaluated was involved in the appointment of the advisory committee, it can certainly leave the impression of something less than transparent,” he said.
Mr. LeBlanc said Mr. Nicholson should name others, such as respected judges and senior lawyers from the province, to vet Mr. Toews if he is to be appointed.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Nicholson, Geneviève Breton, did not answer a question about whether any special process had been set up for the review of any nominee.
Mr. Toews's political profile has lessened since he was shuffled out of the justice portfolio. And there is speculation that his messy divorce from his wife of 32 years, Lorraine Fehr, now before the courts in Manitoba, might cause disaffection among conservative Christian voters in his Provencher riding.
Ms. Fehr filed for divorce in March, stating the couple had been separated for more than a year. She sought spousal support and detailed $12,930 in monthly expenses.
With a report from Joe Friesen in Winnipeg
