Cosgrove retired from the House of Commons to accept an appointment by John Turner to the bench of the Ontario Superior Court on July 9, 1984, shortly after Parliament was dissolved for the 1984 election.
[1] As a result, the attorney-general of Ontario, Michael Bryant filed a complaint against Cosgrove, calling him unfit to be a judge, and accusing him of sullying reputations and of having "vilified the state".
The federal court ruling temporarily halted the proceedings against Judge Cosgrove who had been on a paid leave of absence since Bryant's April 2004 request for a disciplinary hearing.
On December 4, 2008, in a 4-1 decision, a committee of the Canadian Judicial Council found grounds for recommending to the federal justice minister that Cosgrove be removed from office.
The full Canadian Judicial Council, made up of the 22 of Canada's chief justices and senior judges, met to consider the committee's recommendation and, on March 31, 2009, formally recommended to Parliament that Cosgrove be removed saying that "We find that Justice Cosgrove has failed in the execution of the duties of his judicial office and that public confidence in his ability to discharge those duties in the future has been irrevocably lost."
If he had not done so, and had also not taken the option of making an application to the Federal Court for a judicial review of the finding,[3] the House of Commons and Senate would have had to vote on whether to remove him from office, something which has never happened since Canadian confederation.