Ontarians want an independent justice system, judges who are fair. The Conservatives have appointed two former staffers of the Premier’s office on the committee that selects judges, staffers who remain in close communication with the government through their roles as lobbyists.

When asked about it, Premier Ford said he wanted to appoint like-minded judges. And in the face of public pushback, what did the Premier do? He said he’s going to double down, triple down, quadruple down, even quintuple down. This might sound funny, but this is a serious issue. He’s a man on a mission.

Conservatives always talk about how meritocracy is the way to go, but it appears as long as you are with the same mindset as the Premier, you’re good to go. What happened to the fundamental principle of judges being neutral, of the impartiality of the courts? A judge who bows down to political pressure would be in clear breach of their oath of office.

Speaker, this is not only bad for the quality of the justice system but also for the perception of fairness of the courts by the public. People will feel like they’re being judged by Premier Ford, and I think it’s fair to say he’s not a good judge.

I just want to cast back to last year, when the member from Oakville North–Burlington brought a motion forward on Keira’s Law, saying that we should require that judges take mandatory training, as they come to the bench, and JPs take mandatory training, as they take their positions, on sexual assault and sexual violence. Do you know what happened with that motion? It was unanimously supported by this House, Mr. Speaker. When we then incorporated Keira’s Law into the Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act, 2023, everybody in the House spoke in favour of that piece of legislation.

When we talk about diversity and we want to increase the diversity of the bench, people say, “Absolutely, you need to do that.” And when we talk about raising awareness of victims’ perspectives and issues, people say, “Absolutely.” And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker—you know where this is going—when we say we want to have tough-on-crime judges and JPs, the House says, “Oh, no, no. We can’t have a perspective.” Well, we do have a—

Interjections.