A Federal Court judge is reserving his decision following a hearing which involved Thunder Bay Justice Patrick Smith.
The court heard on Tuesday Smith’s challenge that the Canadian Judicial Council abused its power when it ruled he was wrong to accept a temporary dean’s position at the Lakehead University’s law school in 2018.
Smith’s lawyer, Brian Gover notes, one of the parties to the proceedings, the Attorney General of Canada agreed with Justice Smith that the Council acted “unreasonably” in finding that Justice Smith contravened a section of the Judge’s Act by accepting the temporary position.
Gover argued, on behalf of his client, that the Council denied Justice Smith a fair process and that in fact, “the Council abused its own process in this case.”
Justice Russel Zinn indicated that his judgment would take some time for him to prepare.
