Role Of Judge In Canada's Constitutional Democracy

Role of Judge in Canada’s Constitutional Democracy: A view from all possible Angles

Judge’s can be termed as guardians of the constitution in Democratic countries so the same applies for Canada’s Constitutional Democracy. We will see a theme of different views from various angles about judge’s role and their uncommon proportion of their fortitude to do fulfil their role in Democratic state like Canada.

“Constitutional Democracy can be defined as system of government based on popular sovereignty in which structures, limits and powers of government are set forth in a constitution. Whereas, as per Oxford dictionary a judge is defined as an officer with authority to decide cases in law court. In any country judicial system acts as the independent

body which brings justice to all the people of the country as per constitutional rules. Judiciary is protective policy for constitution where people can seek justice in the event ill treatment by any of the government or private bodies violating constitutional laws.”
The main responsibility of judge is to decide cases and administer justice, but it varies from system to system.

Since Canada is a constitutional Democracy, judge has a role to play with deciding cases.

In Canada elected public representative will remain in power till end of term by constitution provision. These representatives are expected to make laws which benefit country and its people. During such process there are or may be a lot if grey areas which is filled by judicial system in most of the cases.

Democracy word means control or govern the country with majority opinion and different bodies plays key roles in keeping the meaning of democracy. Out of all the bodies judicial system is considered as vital system in keeping the system in place with defending the rights of public and keeping space for government administration and at times takes the additional role of liaising in between government and people in situation where deference of opinion arises and judge acts as the decision/suggestion maker by standing in a neutral

position.

In Canada, judicial body and its placements are carried out based on experience, contribution and knowledge of a person which provides judges to act freely in defending the constitution, protecting public interest, backing the policies suggestion based on country advantage.

The selection process of Canada judiciary, irrespective of court, are picked from legal profession. if the judges are appointed by federal government, that includes the judges of all the courts irrespective of their level in hierarchy and which are known as provincial courts, are qualified only if they are members of provincial or territorial bar for ten years or more. The independence of the judiciary in Canada is guaranteed both explicitly and implicitly by different parts of the Constitution of Canada. This independence is understood to provide stability in tenure, financial security and independence in institutional administration.

Our laws embody the basic moral values of our society. They create limits on behaviour of individuals which promoted the good nature of conduct and helps in making our communities much safer to live. Stealing, hurting other person, reckless driving or environmental pollution are some of the several ways that law is providing us protection. All the people of Canada are equal before the law and are ruled by it. Despite the amount of wealth or the power a man acquires still considered as equal in the eyes of law and expected to obey law or face

consequences.
As per official line judges in Canada don’t make law but they do make laws generally in three situations, interpretation, filling the gaps, common law. It is quite difficult for the parliament to define a law in each possible scenario and define the terms, in such scenarios we clearly see the need for judge to interpret the law so that it can be applied to the case in courts. Filling in the law comes in play when the judge encounters a scenario with no to little laws. In common law condition where there is no statute law. In such a condition the judgements built by judges on existing cases are influenced by previous cases in a way that could be called law making. Common law is also referred as case law where majority of law's created by judge , case by case, as they make rulings and determine the ideal meaning of law of regulation.

Laws are made by parliament and enforcing them is job of judge. This statement can be put be out to sleep in Canada’s case. The two statutes in Canada are the constitution Act 1867 and the Constitution Act 1982. The charter of Freedom and Rights are included in constitution Act 1982.
During the course there are several unwritten traditions and customs that got evolved. An example can be seen in Supreme Court of Canada's stand in the Nadon appointment. In this case Supreme Court of Canada had, with in course of time, achieved a constitutional status, which implies to it that any changes to its enabling act can only be made in similar path as the constitution changes were made.
Judge-mage law is another important to our society and how it runs. Much of our society revolves around the laws made by judge rather than parliament.
Most of contract law and law of negligence is judge-made law.
Judge-made law is vital to how our society runs. Much of our society revolves around legal doctrines created by judges, not Parliament.

Almost all contract law is judge-made law. The law of negligence is also almost all judge-made law. Negligence is involved in every car accident case in B.C., which makes up over one-third of all lawsuits filed in B.C. Supreme Court. If there are no judge made laws, then we would have seen huge gaps in working of law and our expectations towards it. A pedestrian who was hit by driver driving while texting would not be able to claim damage claim from driver despite of serious injuries.

Even though constitutional legislation is made, the interpretation of those laws by courts and judges creates the effective law. Under principle of stare decisis, one judge interpretation of law is binding on future judges. Despite the persuasive impact, it is the responsibility of judge who is hearing the case to give their verdict depending on his or her interpretation of law. This shows that judges not only enforce law but play a vital role in creating the law. In fact, as per constitution judges are recognized as third Brach of Government. The bigger question here is are judges only responsible for enforcing the law? Despite of disagreeing with some of the laws made in this country we all choose to comply with the law that are made which shows our respect towards the laws is the pillar of our todays civilised society. this is one of the reason we confer our trust in judges and elected representatives.
even though both systems have their own strengths and weaknesses our current system is managing a good balance in vesting of law making privilege between elected representatives and Judges.
To conclude, justice system in Canada is the mechanism that upholds the rule of law. Our courts provide a forum to resolve disputes and to test and enforce laws in a fair and rational manner. The courts are an impartial forum, and judges are free to apply the law without regard to the government's wishes or the weight of public opinion. Court decisions are based on what the law says and what the evidence proves; there is no place in the courts for suspicion, bias or favouritism. Therefore justice is often symbolized as a blindfolded figure balancing a set of scales, oblivious to anything that could detract from the pursuit of an outcome that is just and fair.