Tim Green Blind Justice Creative Commons License
It is the height of irony that the Province of Alberta and the august panel which determines judges’ salaries should give Provincial Court Judges a massive salary increase and at the same time pin these judges to mandatory sentences without discretion. I suppose I don’t mind paying more for judgment. But it irritates me to know that these judges are obliged to follow mandatory sentencing patterns and yet are being paid more to judge less.
On another related point – who determines how these panels are struck and why do we always seem to end up paying the highest rates across the country? Can’t we find some cheap panel members?
But that’s enough of a rant.