Should the prime minister consider diversity for the Supreme Court of Canada?

As Stephen Harper ponders filling two upcoming vacant seats on the Supreme Court, minorities, particularly aboriginals, are calling it an opportunity for the prime minister to consider diversity in the top court.

The Indigenous Bar Association, a group representing aboriginal lawyers, says the highest court needs to be more representative of a country whose legal system is "rooted in common law, civil law and indigenous traditions."

"As a founding partner, we're actually not reflected in any of the ways the other founding partners are, including in our jurisprudence," Jeffery Hewitt, past president of the association, told the National Post.

Aboriginals aren't represented on Canada's Supreme Court and neither are other minorities. The court is now made up of five men and four women, all whom are Caucasian.

Should the Supreme Court mirror Canada's diversity?

Former top court justice John Major doesn't think so.

"When you think of it, if you're appointing the head of surgery in a hospital, should you have an aboriginal fill that position because the hospital is in Yellowknife?

"It's one thing to say all races have to be represented on the chamber of commerce or in some community effort, but when you're getting into important efforts (like Supreme Court cases), competency needs to be the only test," Major told the Post.

Diversity on the Supreme Court is also a debate going on in the U.K. where 11 out of the 12 superior court judges are white males. That court's uniformity has some calling for a quota system.

"Whilst it would be nice to believe that our judges are incorruptible and objective beyond the ability of ordinary humans, this does seem unlikely. Judges may be significantly cleverer (at least regarding law) than the average person, but their views are, like everyone's, influenced by any number of personal life experiences," wrote U.K. human rights blogger Adam Wagner.

"Whilst quotas are unlikely, it may beneficial to the justice system to propel more women and judges from minority backgrounds into the senior judiciary. How this will be achieved is a work in progress."

Currently, Canada's Supreme Court justices are selected by the prime minister from a short list of candidates developed by the federal Department of Justice.

(CP Photo)