Joyal nominated to Canada’s highest court Manitoba Chief Justice poised to become newest addition to Supreme Court of Canada By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 4:52 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 22, 2026

He’s presided over some of the province’s most high-profile trials, strove to modernize Manitoba’s court system and worked to keep it running through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, Manitoba King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal is poised to become the newest addition to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“Throughout his career, Chief Justice Joyal has demonstrated the integrity, experience and sound judgment that service on our highest court demands,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a news release Monday announcing Joyal’s nomination to the high court. “I am confident he will serve Canadians with distinction.”

Joyal practised criminal law, constitutional law and civil litigation before his appointment to Manitoba provincial court in 1998.

Following a brief stint with the Court of Appeal of Manitoba, Joyal was appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench in 2009 and was appointed chief justice two years later.

Last month, Joyal issued a mammoth written ruling finding the federal and provincial governments managed First Nations child welfare in Manitoba in a way that violated the communities’ constitutionally protected right to self-governance.

In a trial that brought national attention to the plight of vulnerable Indigenous women, Joyal in 2024 convicted sexual predator and serial killer Jeremy Skibicki of four counts of first-degree murder.

In 2022, Joyal found former City of Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl guilty of accepting a $327,000 bribe during construction of the scandal-laden police headquarters.

Sheegl’s lawyer, Robert Tapper, who worked with Joyal briefly at the same law firm early in Joyal’s career, said he was “very happy” to hear of Joyal’s nomination.

“I thoroughly enjoyed being in front of him (in court), and that includes the cases I didn’t win,” said Tapper, who is now retired.

“He was a spectacularly intelligent judge… he’s also a decent human being.”

“He was a spectacularly intelligent judge… he’s also a decent human being, which is a nice thing to go with it,” he said. “I don’t have a bad thing to say about him.”

Joyal is one of the few judges in the province to have experience at all three court divisions and his wealth of trial experience will be of “great value” to the Supreme Court, said veteran criminal lawyer Saul Simmonds.

“That will set him apart from many of the others who sit on that court,” Simmonds said.

King’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Shane Perlmutter, who has worked alongside Joyal since his own appointment to the court in 2011, called Joyal’s Supreme Court nomination “a proud day for Manitoba courts and a proud day for Manitobans.”

Joyal has introduced transformative changes to how the Court of King’s Bench operates and serves Manitobans, including measures to reduce court delays, particularly involving child protection cases, and changes to how the court engages with the Indigenous community, including the incorporation of Indigenous practices such as smudging ceremonies and the availability of eagle feathers for Indigenous witnesses, Perlmutter said.

“He’s brought about tremendous reforms that have been exceptionally positive for the average Manitoban who finds themselves using the courts,” Perlmutter said. “Everything I’ve ever seen Chief Justice Joyal undertake has been based on his view of what the courts are to stand for, including judicial independence, and the understanding that judicial independence rests on the need of the public having confidence in the courts and us as judges.”

Justice Sheilah L. Martin retired from the Supreme Court last month, opening the door to Joyal’s nomination.

An independent and non-partisan advisory board identifies nominee candidates for the prime minister.

Members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights will participate in a hearing to learn more about the selection process, after which a question-and-answer session will be held with Joyal.

In his candidacy application, Joyal said he continues to see himself as a “sitting judge” who leads by example.

“I am proud of the rigour of my many years of written jurisprudence generally and of certain judgments in particular in which my analysis of specific legal questions or issues has contributed to the growth or clarification of the law,” Joyal wrote.

Joyal identified his work on access to justice issues as one of his most important contributions to the law and the pursuit of justice in Canada.

“These issues may involve challenges of efficiency, but so too do they involve issues of representativeness, inclusion and institutional trust,” he wrote.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca