The Honourable Glennys L. McVeigh was appointed today to the Federal Court. She was a senior counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Saskatoon. Judicial appointments were also made today in Ontario and Quebec.
The Department of Justice issued a release on Justice McVeigh‘s appointment. Her main practice areas were criminal prosecutions, civil litigation, administrative and immigration law.
According to the announcement, Justice McVeigh’s appointment is to a new position in the Federal Court. In June 2012, the Federal Courts Act was amended to expand the number of judicial openings from 32 to 36 (See Federal Courts Act, s.5.1(1)) as part of An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Federal Courts Act passed in 2010 but from my count, with today’s appointment there are only 31 judges of the Federal Court.
Justice McVeigh is the 7th Federal Court judge appointed in the last year. Recently appoints to the Court are Justice Peter Annis (February 2013), Justice Yvan Roy and Justice Cecily Y. Strickland (December 2012), Justice Michael Manson (October 2012), Justice Kane (June 2012) and Justice Gagné (May 2012).
Also today, appointments were made in Ontario (announcement) to the Ontario Court of Appeal, Ontario Superior Court of Justice and in Quebec (announcement) to Court of Appeal of Quebec.
This opinion is the latest reminder of the influence of federal judges, particularly on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. President Obama’s attempts to get a single nominee confirmed to that court have been met with extreme resistance and obstruction — of the same sort that moved Obama to fill several urgent executive branch vacancies through recess appointments.