Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Waiting for Godot!

The National Post reports that "Military Tribunal 'disconcerted in the extreme' at slow appointments process under the Liberals" .  The Military Grievances External Review Committee  [MGERC] is an separate, independent civilian body with quasi-judicial powers. It conducts objective and transparent reviews of a designated class of grievances for consideration by the Final Authority, the Chief of Defence Staff. Pursuant to section 29.16 of the National Defence Act, its authorized complement consists of a) a Chairperson, at least two Vice-Chairpersons and any other member appointed by the Governor in Council (GIC) hat are required to allow it to perform its function.

The MGERC 's General Counsel, Caroline Maynard, has been appointed acting Chair of the MGER in January 2017.The two Vice-chair positions at the MGER are currently vacant.

Other similar critical shortages are being experienced  across the federal government. There are currently a number of vacancies of federally appointed judges (57). Moreover, there is as well a significant number national level GIC appointments that are vacant. For example, the Immigration and Refugee Board (is short 32 members) and in the military/defence field the Military Judges Compensation Committee (is short 3 members); the Military Police Complaints Commission (2); the National Battlefields Commission (1); the Veterans Review and Appeal Board (12). There is also one vacant military judge position.

In several other cases, positions are being filled on a temporary basis because the government was not able to fill them before the incumbent's term was set to expire. Among them are half of the officers of Parliament — the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, the commissioner of lobbying and the official languages commissioner, while the chief electoral officer's position is listed as vacant.

What going on?

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