The Bastarache commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Michel Bastarache has released its report on the appointment of judges in Québec. It conducted a thorough inquiry and heard the testimony of numerous witnesses concerning the allegations of the former Québec minister of Justice, Marc Bellemare who had claimed he had been subject to political pressure to appoint judges favoured by the fund raisers for the governing Liberal party. Judge Bastarache after hearing all the testimony , weighing the evidence in a meticulous fashion has concluded that the claims are unfounded and that M.Bellemare made his judicial appointments by his own free will, The report is about 300 pages long and weighs each allegation and the evidence very carefully. M.Charest is vindicated. It will take some time but hopefully the court of public opinion will follow the lead of Bastarache's conclusions.
Judge Bastarache also has included 46 recommendations for improving the process by which judicial appointments are made to ensure greater transparency, greater diversity of candidates and greater involvement of members of the public in the selection process. The recommendations are very constructive and well thought out and hopefully most of them will be implemented by the government.
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