Nominee Glenn Joyal tells MPs he wants to uphold public confidence in Supreme Court

OTTAWA — Supreme Court of Canada nominee Glenn Joyal said Monday he wants to uphold public confidence in the country’s top court.

Joyal, nominated to the Supreme Court by Prime Minister Mark Carney last week, took questions from MPs and senators during a special meeting in the House of Commons.

Joyal, who has been chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba since 2011, said fostering public trust in the judiciary involves demonstrating that judges understand the lived experience of people coming before the courts.

Speaking in French, Joyal said he’s worked with people experiencing very difficult personal circumstances during his 28 years on the bench in Manitoba. He said that experience sharpened his judicial skills and gave him a firsthand understanding of the challenges facing individuals who come before a judge.

Joyal said his time in Winnipeg helped him understand the judiciary’s relationship with Indigenous people and called the experience “extremely humbling.”

“We thought of ourselves as representing ground zero. Ground zero in an effort to more directly address the unique obligations and opportunities that surround the judiciary’s relationship with Indigenous peoples,” Joyal said.

“For me, this gave rise to greater engagement with Indigenous communities and indeed with Indigenous leaders in an effort to build a new and lasting trust.”

Joyal said that while he’s seen some improvement, there are years of work still ahead on building trust between the judiciary and Indigenous communities.

“Regrettably, the type of mutual trust we need isn’t there and it’s that project that has animated me and my colleagues in Manitoba,” Joyal said.

“It’s a project that requires something more than us simply going out, as we sometimes do in outreach, and trying to explain to people what we do, how we do it. It actually involves listening.”

Joyal said Supreme Court justices have a big job to do in defending the Constitution and upholding the laws passed in Parliament. He said the court is not immune to criticism but it needs to come from a legitimate place that is not motivated by heightened political polarization and misinformation.

“I don’t believe in defending stupid systems and to the extent that our systems sometimes need improvement, we can do that. That was my approach when I was a chief justice,” he said.

“The problem in terms of polarization comes when there’s demagogy or misinformation or disinformation that corrodes and compromises our institutions, not just the judiciary … It’s misinformed or disinformed criticisms that are personalized and that are accurate. That’s not doing a service to the informed public discourse we want in a country as complicated as Canada.”

This was not a standard parliamentary hearing. Joyal was prevented from speaking about current and past rulings, legislation and hypothetical situations during the nearly two-and-a-half hour hearing.

Conservative justice critic Larry Brock did ask for his thoughts on declining public confidence in the judicial system, citing sentencing and the number of people reoffending while out on bail.

Joyal said he wants to assure Canadians that he bases his decisions on jurisprudence and existing legal principles.

“Not everybody would agree with whatever I do, but it’s grounded in principle and it’s grounded in precedent. And to the extent that I took that oath and will carry out my duties to apply the law and to interpret the law as it currently exists, that should give comfort to Canadians,” he said.

“If they want results that are different than what it is the court might provide because of the existing law, then they’ll come back to you and they’ll ask for those changes.”

Joyal was asked how he sees artificial intelligence being used in the court as the technology affects more aspects of everyday life.

The justice said all courts are looking for ways to improve access to their services and make the legal system less costly and complex. He said there is a need to be careful with artificial intelligence, as it’s “not entirely all bad, but it’s not entirely all good.”

“Nothing should ever, ever compromise what it is that I think people expect, which is that it’s the judges who decide, human beings who decide,” he said.

“That’s what should never ever be lost and that’s what’s going to preserve the integrity of the system even if we are able to use AI in some way that might be helpful.”

Justice Minister Sean Fraser, Federal Judicial Affairs Commissioner Marc Giroux and Maureen McTeer, chair of the independent advisory board tasked with reviewing Supreme Court nominations, also appeared before the House justice committee Monday to take MP questions on Joyal’s nomination.

McTeer said that what sets Joyal apart is his “thoughtful, articulate and forward-looking perspective on the role of the Supreme Court of Canada” and his commitment to public service.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press