Canadian Judge Likely To Lose Job Over Remarks

Led by Canada’s top judge, the Canadian Judicial Council asked Justice Minister Allan Rock on Friday to remove a Quebec judge whose comments angered Jews and women.

A majority of the council determined that Superior Court Judge Jean Bienvenue “has become incapacitated or disabled” and must be removed from the bench, said Antonio Lamer, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The council, the main disciplinary body for Canada’s judges, voted 22-7 during its annual meeting to recommend ousting Bienvenue, saying he no longer held public confidence.

A judicial council committee urged in July that Bienvenue, 67, be taken off the bench for inappropriate conduct and comments he made as he sentenced a woman at a murder trial.

The judge said women can be more cruel than men. He also said the Nazis “did not eliminate millions of Jews in a painful and bloody manner. They died in the gas chambers without suffering.”