Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Brad Green's appointment on Monday. He will replace Kathleen Quigg, who has been appointed to the Court of Appeal.
A graduate of the University of New Brunswick law school, Green was admitted to the bar in 1991 before becoming an executive assistant to the province's Opposition leader later that year.
After seven years holding senior positions in the provincial Conservative party, he was first elected as a Fredericton MLA in a 1998 byelection. He served as justice minister from 1999 to 2006 in Bernard Lord's Conservative government.
Green has also served as health minister and minister responsible for aboriginal affairs.
Green lost his seat in the New Brunswick legislature in the 2006 election that put the current Liberal government in power. He has since worked as an adviser in the office of the official Opposition.
Grand Falls lawyer Jean-Paul Ouellette was also appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench on Monday. He will replace Myrna Athey, who has become a supernumerary judge.
commentary;
Wow, just how stupid does Stephen Harper have to be to prove that he does not deserve to be prime minister?
There is nothing worse than having a new "family court judge" who knows dick all about family law.
My god, they claim "well have him trained".
Just how do you train someone in family law in a very short time frame when family law itself is based on
a great deal of experience.
The reality is family law is a cess pool, it often attracts the very worst examples of society while "the saints"
got about being judges and lawyers on a day to day basis, kicking but for most of those their clients.
Just where do we draw the line, do the conservatives have a valid argument that someone new,
some "fresh material" or "fresh blood" as you will diplomatically hear around the lawyers drinking haunts?
The fact is, just stand with any group of lawyers drinking around a bar and feeling like speaking out,
you will find a variety of opinions, one is outrage, how dare such a greenhorn dare be appointed?
The other is, this is a political appointee, don't rock the boat, they could be around for along time,
If you piss these conservatives off, you might not get a chance to get your appointment, stand behind Brad Green
and you too just might get appointed to one of those, you know, jobs for life, total immunity from you know what and of
course, absolute power and included in that package is all the unwritten favours that can be dispensed to friends.
On the other side of the coin you have a large number of lawyers just shitting themselves hoping against hope that
they wont come up against "that arshole". You see, political representatives who get to play survivor and get to "win"
also do so pissing off a large number of people, they create in their wake a great deal of destruction. Once in posittions
of absolute power, there are very few who cannot resist the urge to settle old scores.
I'm willing to bet there is a group of lawyers particularly those with the wrong political connections or those with the misfortune to have run up against Brad Green previously. If you hire a lawyer who falls in that category, then you might look for another lawyer . Judges, especially those "anointed" rather than appointed on merit and experience, tend to be chronic abuses of fiduciary duty. Not that I know Brad Green, maybee he is a saint but the odds are that absolute power corrupts and it really begs the question as to why any prime minister would make such an obvious patronage aappointment.