Law360 Canada (June 22, 2026, 11:43 AM EDT) -- Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, widely reputed in recent years to be a leading candidate for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, has been nominated to fill the western vacancy that opened up with the May 30 retirement of Supreme Court of Canada Justice Sheilah Martin, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on June 22.

According to the announcement, Chief Justice Joyal’s name was chosen by the prime minister from an unspecified number of names shortlisted by the latest Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments, originated by the predecessor Trudeau Liberal government as an independent and non-partisan body convened to provide a shortlist of three to five merit-based candidates for appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“Throughout his career, Chief Justice Joyal has demonstrated the integrity, experience and sound judgment that service on our highest court demands,” Prime Minister Carney said in a media release. “I am confident that he will serve Canadians with distinction.”

The government noted that the fluently bilingual judge has been on the bench for more than 25 years, where he has led the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba since 2011. Before Chief Justice Joyal’s appointment to the bench, he practised criminal law, constitutional law and civil litigation in Manitoba.

“His work to improve access to justice, modernize court operations and advance reconciliation reflects a deep commitment to the fair administration of justice,” Justice Minister Sean Fraser said. “He is an outstanding nominee to serve on Canada’s highest court.”

The federal government said a joint question-and-answer session (the date was not specified) with Chief Justice Joyal will be held before members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and members of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. The session is to be moderated by University of Ottawa law professor Anne Levesque.

The nomination by the prime minister just three weeks after Justice Martin’s retirement is very speedy compared to the previous nominations of the Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, which took considerably longer.

The nomination was welcomed by the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), which noted that the chief justice’s pre-judicial career includes work as a Crown attorney as well as in private practice, with particular expertise in criminal and constitutional law.

“His bilingualism, deep Manitoba roots and longstanding engagement with the province’s legal, francophone, Indigenous and access-to-justice communities will bring an important perspective to the court,” CBA president Bianca Kratt said in a statement.

“We are confident that Justice Joyal will serve on it with independence, rigour and integrity.”

At press time, the federal government had not disclosed to Law360 Canada how many jurists were on the shortlist that the vetting committee was mandated to give to Prime Minister Carney. (The committee was tasked with coming up with three to five well-qualified western or northern bilingual candidates for the post but was only able to come up with two qualified names for the previous western Supreme Court vacancy.)

However, given Chief Justice Joyal’s extensive educational credentials, broad experience as a criminal prosecutor and litigator, service as a trial judge in both the provincial and superior courts, and prominence as a judicial leader — including as a senior member of the executive of the Canadian Judicial Council — he was widely seen as a top candidate, if not the leading candidate, to succeed Justice Martin of Alberta at the high court.

If he is appointed, he will join Justice Mary Moreau of Alberta as one of the two western members of the Supreme Court of Canada. At that time, the top court will no longer be a 5-4 female majority, a historic milestone that occurred for the first time in 2023 when Justice Moreau was elevated from the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Lawyers can learn more about Chief Justice Joyal from the 13,000-word-plus in-depth excerpt from the questionnaire the Liberal government requires all Supreme Court applicants to fill out.

The excerpt, published on the website of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, delves into the judge’s education, personal background and professional life, and includes answers to five essay questions, including on the appropriate role of a judge in a constitutional democracy, the audience for Supreme Court of Canada decisions, and his most significant contribution to the law and the pursuit of justice in Canada.

Asked to explain how his experience gives him “insight into the variety and diversity of Canadians and their unique perspectives,” Chief Justice Joyal noted he grew up in a bicultural family in St. Boniface, Man. “On my father’s side are deep Franco-Manitoban roots which go back more than 200 years,” he wrote. “His ancestors include Marie Anne Gaboury, who was the first woman of European descent to travel to and settle in what is now western Canada. She also happened to be the maternal grandmother of Louis Riel.”

“My mother was Polish,” wrote the judge, who is in his sixties. “The experience of her parents was that of Saskatchewan homesteaders who were part of the European prairie settlement which helped shape the development and diversity of western Canada. This bicultural experience provided me not only a personal adaptiveness to differing perspectives and traditions, it also provided early exposure to the inspiring rewards and challenges that accompany the promotion and protection of a minority official language and a simultaneous celebration of ethnic and cultural difference.”

The chief justice noted he is married to a Franco-Manitoban who taught for many years in Manitoba’s French school division — la Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, where both of the couple’s daughters attended primary school. The language of their home is principally French, he said.

The chief justice also speaks Italian, as a result of studies abroad of the Italian language and culture. He is a longtime amateur playwright, whose theatrically produced and published plays include “Les Lions et Leurs Ponts” (2005), which the chief justice said “explored themes surrounding the meaning of identity, community, inclusion and survival.”

“In 28 years as a judge, I have continued to encounter evidence of the variety of advantages and challenges associated with the Canadian experience,” Chief Justice Joyal wrote. “Despite examples of situations worth celebrating, there appeared before me, the histories and stories of individuals which too often reflected the plight of traditionally disadvantaged groups in Canadian society. In that regard, my experience as a judge in the Manitoba Provincial Court included frequent travel to a number of First Nation circuit locations (some of which were very remote and isolated) where I would have been the assigned judge for significant periods of time,” he said. “That experience gave me a window into both the opportunities and challenges in connection with building the requisite trust and respect that will be foundational for the justice system’s future contribution to the project of reconciliation. My experience also permitted me to see firsthand the potential benefits of collaborating with community Elders and others to find ways, where possible, to better incorporate Indigenous legal traditions and restorative justice solutions (sentencing circles and customized community diversion, etc.) into the administration of criminal justice.”

When describing the role of judges in a constitutional democracy, Chief Justice Joyal said in part that the words of former chief justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin inform his understanding.

“While judges recognize that elected officials in a constitutional democracy have the institutional authority to make policy and indeed, discuss, interpret, promote and protect fundamental freedoms, there can be no abdication respecting the judiciary’s own role, which can and must function in a balanced, co-existing way with the legislative branch,” Chief Justice Joyal wrote.  “In that regard,… Chief Justice McLachlin summarized the balance in the institutional roles in the following way,” he quoted. “‘Judges have an important role to play in maintaining Canadian parliamentary democracy. Parliament and the provincial legislatures remain the dominant players in shaping our society and responding to its needs in a creative and proactive role. But judges, when called upon, stand ready to answer the difficult questions on the constitutional limits of the exercise of power and the multiple accommodations so essential to the continued stability of our country. If judges are to discharge this role, they must not become politicians, nor can they be made politically accountable. The continued good governance of Canada demands no less.’"

Chief Justice Joyal pursued undergraduate and graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, McGill University, Paris-Sorbonne University, the University of Manitoba and Oxford University. He was admitted to the Manitoba bar in 1987.

He was appointed a judge of the Manitoba Provincial Court in 1998 and joined the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 2007. Later that year, he joined the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench, where he became associate chief justice in 2009, and then chief justice in 2011.

Before becoming a judge, Chief Justice Joyal served as a Crown attorney with Manitoba Justice, as a federal Crown counsel with the federal Department of Justice, and as an associate with the Winnipeg law firm of Wolch, Pinx, Tapper, Scurfield. He is a past member of l’Association des juristes d’expression française du Manitoba.

He is the most senior member of the Canadian Judicial Council of 44 federal chief justices, second only to the chief justice of Canada. He chairs the committee that reviews misconduct complaints against the country’s 1,189 federally appointed trial and appellate judges.

Chief Justice Joyal has been very active for many years in judicial and public education and in public outreach, including making a speech last February at the University of Ottawa, which was attended in person by Justice Martin and four other Supreme Court of Canada judges.

“Bold” but “properly calibrated” judicial action, rather than reflexive judicial reticence and reserve, is sometimes necessary to preserve public confidence in the justice system — a confidence on which the foundational principle of judicial independence depends, Chief Justice Joyal said in his speech titled, “The Paradox of Judicial Independence: A Framework for Exploring Issues in Judicial Ethics, Judicial Freedom and Judicial Conduct.”

The judge was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022 to recognize his outstanding public service and valuable contribution to Manitoba as well as the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2024 in recognition of his significant contributions as chief justice to court modernization and reconciliation efforts with Indigenous communities.

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