Law360 Canada (September 23, 2026, 3:37 PM EDT) -- Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner says Canada’s independent justice system and perspective on confronting global threats to the rule of law has attracted interest abroad.
Speaking Sept. 22 at a Newfoundland and Labrador law society event in St. John’s, Chief Justice Wagner told local lawyers and those online that he was the only non-European court leader invited to attend the meeting in Cyprus last June of the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the 27-member European Union (EU).
“They wanted to get the North American point of view on questions of access to justice, but also … disinformation, misinformation, the rule of law and judicial independence,” the chief justice noted during the moderated question-and-answer session that focused on the challenges Canadian courts currently confront.
Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner
The interest abroad in Canada’s perspective “gives you an idea to what extent we have an opportunity here in Canada, that maybe did not exist a few years ago,” he said. “With what’s happening around us and elsewhere in the world, now people look at Canada as a reference in terms of stability, in terms of rule of law, in terms of judicial independence. With all our weaknesses, we’ve got strong points and I took that as a good sign, the fact that they wanted to get the Canadian perspective for a problem which is global.”
The outreach from Europe’s top judges is salient in light of the Carney government’s ongoing efforts to expand Canada’s collaboration with the EU in trade, defence and other sectors and last week’s surprise comment from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who raised eyebrows in Canada by suggesting that this country become the EU’s first “associate” member.
In responding to questions from lawyers that were pre-submitted to the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, Chief Justice Wagner noted public concern in Canada about what the threats to the rule of law abroad could mean here.
When the top court travelled to five different Canadian cities last year to meet with the local bar and the public, “the public always asked me the same question,” he said.
“They are seeing what’s going on in the country very close to us, geographically speaking, and they were afraid,” he said, alluding to the United States. They feared that “what’s going on in other countries could come to Canada,” he explained. “They asked, ‘Could that happen in our country, what we see outside?’”
“And my message is ‘Yes, if we don’t defend our values,’” the chief justice said.
“But I’m optimistic,” he added, “because we have a good democracy in Canada. We have good institutions. We have probably the best trained judges in the world. We export our expertise to train other judges in other jurisdictions.”
“We’ve got our challenges, of course,” he acknowledged. “We’ve got things to correct. But we have strong bases, strong institutions, but we have to protect it.”
A 2025 research report commissioned by a coalition of Canadian law societies also revealed there is no room for complacency: 46 per cent of those surveyed expressed their belief that the erosion of the rule of law they see happening under the Trump administration in the U.S. could happen here.
People have to work to protect their institutions and uphold public confidence in the courts, the chief justice advised. “And to keep their trust in the institution, you have to be transparent,” he noted. “People should know about you, should know about what you do.”
He said he also often hears from the public about the problems people experience in accessing the Canadian justice system at a reasonable cost and in a timely way.
That too is “a responsibility of all the stakeholders in society, and not [just] one,” he remarked, noting that the provision of government resources is “part of the remedy, but it’s not the only remedy.”
“People were asking me whether the future was looking bright or not, and I said, according to me, ‘It’s looking very bright if people are taking the responsibility,’” he said.
The chief justice said he was encouraged to see the government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s allocation of millions of dollars this year to improve court services across the province.
The 2026 provincial budget, unveiled last June, included $8.3 million earmarked for court services, including for 51 new court staff positions, seven additional provincial court judge positions as well as audiovisual modernization to support virtual bail court.
The province also budgeted an additional $1.2 million to fund 14 new positions with Public Prosecutions, including six new Crown attorneys and support staff, to enable prosecutors to proceed with scheduled trials on time.
“I have to tell you that I’m very much impressed with the news about the investment by your government,” the chief justice said. “I wish that other provinces would follow in the same spirit because we need that type of investment by government.”
Newfoundland and Labrador have been contending with growing case backlogs. Its provincial court indefinitely adjourned certain civil hearings, traffic matters and
Contraventions Act cases while circuit court sittings were also reduced indefinitely in some regions.
The chief justice was asked to speak about the responsibilities he shoulders in addition to the administrative duties and full caseload he carries at the Supreme Court of Canada. His responsibilities include leading the Canadian Judicial Council and the National Judicial Institute (the educational body for federal judges), co-chairing with the Attorney General of Canada the Action Committee on Modernizing Court Operations and chairing the advisory board of the Order of Canada.
Serving also at times as the “administrator” of the Government of Canada, the chief justice can also be called on to temporarily step into the shoes of the Governor General of Canada when that position is vacant, as it was for half a year after Julie Payette stepped down in 2021.
It can sometimes be “uncomfortable” to wear those two hats, he admitted — i.e., as the chief justice of Canada who is also the stand-in for the Governor General and, as such, charged with carrying out the head of state’s constitutional duties in Canada, including decision-making around elections.
“When the prime minister … asked me to become administrator, he said to me that it would last only a few weeks,” the chief justice recalled. “But it lasted six months and it was a minority government. So, with the chance that … the governor general or the administrator would be called to decide who’s going to form the government, I didn’t like the idea,” he said.
However, that issue did not materialize. The chief justice said his duties as administrator gave him the opportunity to learn more about Canada’s “very strong” public service.
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