Removing a Section 96 Judge: An Historical Case Study

The creation of the Canadian Judicial Council in 1971 and the gradual disappearance of county and district court judges into the superior court judiciary filled a lacuna in the Constitution Act, 1867. The tenure of county court judges was less secure than that of superior court judges, which was constitutionally entrenched and protected. The Judges Act, passed originally to provide for the removal of county court judges, articulated a mechanism which was extended to superior court judges at about the same time as county and district courts were beginning to disappear from the Canadian judicial scene. The lack of such a mechanism had, forovera century, rendered superiorcourtjudges virtually irremovable; none was removed, though some resigned under threat of it. Four county court judges, on the other hand, were removed. This article is an historical case study of one of them, a judge of Nova Scotia\u27s county courts-the last in Canada to be abolished