Nunavut gets two new judges

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould announced June 22 the appointments of Susan Charlesworth and Christian Lyons as judges of the Nunavut Court of Justice. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut has two new territorial justices, appointed by the federal government last week.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould announced on June 22 the appointments of Susan Charlesworth and Christian Lyons as judges of the Nunavut Court of Justice.

The appointments fill two of Nunavut’s six judicial seats that had sat vacant since 2016.

New appointee Justice Susan Charlesworth is a senior review counsel at Queen’s University Legal Aid in Kingston, Ont. She replaces Justice E.D. Johnson, who resigned in September 2015.

Charlesworth lived in Iqaluit between 2013 and 2015, where she worked as criminal defence counsel for Maliganik Tukisiniarvik Legal Services.

Justice Christian Lyons, general counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, replaces Justice R.G. Kilpatrick, who resigned in September 2016.

Originally from Ontario, Justice Lyons was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003 and the Nunavut Bar in 2006.

He moved to Iqaluit that same year to work for Maliganik Tukisiniarvik, where he was later appointed senior counsel. He has worked for the Nunavut regional office of the PPSC since 2014.

The two new appointments to Nunavut’s court were made under a new judicial application process launched in 2016, which seeks greater transparency and diversity in the justice system.

The process was guided in part by the Nunavut Justice Advisory Committee, an independent body made up of Nunavummiut, which provides recommendations to the justice minister on federal judicial appointments.