As of July 1, 2025, there were 585 women presiding over the country’s federally appointed trial and appellate courts (including a 5-4 female majority on the Supreme Court of Canada) — making up 49 per cent of the country’s total of 1,201 federally appointed judges (this total includes 231 supernumerary, i.e. part-time, judges).
Notably, the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs has compiled, for the first time, what the office describes as comparative statistical diversity data on the demographics of the federal judges currently on the bench.
The office compared the demographics reported on questionnaires completed by the incumbent federal judges who were appointed by the Trudeau government (from 2016 onward, i.e., after the Liberals revamped the federal judicial appointment process used by the predecessor government) and the information provided by the incumbent judges appointed pre-2016 (many were appointed by the Conservative federal government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2015).
(The new analysis looks at the federal benches’ demographics as of Feb. 1, 2025. Since then, the Trudeau Liberals have appointed 32 judges, including 15 women (47 per cent). The Carney-led Liberal government, elected last April, has yet to appoint a judge. As a result, judicial vacancies have risen to 35 across the country (up from the teens) as of July 1, 2025.)
The new data from the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs indicate that of the 561 incumbent federal judges who were not appointed by the Trudeau government: 43 per cent are women (243 judges); three per cent are racialized (14 judges); and seven per cent belong to an ethnic/cultural group (38 judges) (percentages are rounded).
Fewer than one per cent (.009) of the current judges who were appointed before 2016 are Indigenous (five judges), and there is only incumbent judge appointed before 2016 who identified as 2SLGBTQI+ and one incumbent judge who identified as having a disability (.0018).
By comparison, of the 642 incumbent judges appointed by the Trudeau government from 2016 until Feb. 1, 2025, 53 per cent are female (337 judges); 12 per cent are racialized (76 judges); 15 per cent belong to an ethnic/cultural group (97 judges); six per cent identify as 2SLGBTQI+ (35 judges); four per cent are Indigenous (23 judges); and .009 identify as having a disability (six judges), according to the self-reported data.
It is worth noting that the diversity data from the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs was extracted from answers to questionnaires by the current judges that differed for the pre-2016 appointees and the Trudeau government appointees — with the former answering a questionnaire containing “a more general question regarding diversity” while the latter “included specific questions relating to diversity,” the commissioner’s office said.
This raises the question of whether the data obtained from the different questionnaires are truly comparable. In that regard, the commissioner’s website states, “Following a detailed analysis carried out by the Office of the Commissioner of the responses from each of those judges appointed before 2016, the information has been classified according to the categories established in the current questionnaire.”
Information previously provided by the federal government has indicated that the increase in diversity on the bench has gone hand in hand with “merit,” according to the professional competence and character assessments made by the Trudeau government’s non-partisan judicial advisory committees (JACs).
Merit or worthiness for the bench are defined as including “sensitivity to and understanding of gender, racial equity and Aboriginal justice issues, an appreciation of social issues, sensitivity to changes in social values and receptiveness to new ideas that are constructive to the public good.”
The latest figures published on the website of the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs revealed that the JACs gave 2SLGBTQI+ jurists their top rating of “highly recommended” most often, followed closely by female jurists (i.e., as a percentage of applicants in 2023-2024 who fell into these categories).
The Trudeau government has stated that since it began appointments to the federal benches in June 2016, it has made more than 860 judicial appointments (these include appointments of provincial judges and elevations within the superior trial and appellate courts). “These exceptional jurists represent the diversity that strengthens Canada,” the former Liberal federal government said last March.
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