Section 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867

Section 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867 (French: article 96 de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867) is a provision of the Constitution of Canada relating to the appointment of judges of the provincial superior, district and county courts.

Section 96 gives the Governor General the power to appoint the judges of the provincial superior, county and district courts.

Under the principles of responsible government, the Governor General acts on the advice of the federal Cabinet in exercising that power.

The Judicial Committee held that the Labour Relation Board of Saskatchewan met this test, and therefore the Legislature could give it powers similar to that of a court to enforce its decisions, without infringing section 96.

[12] The Supreme Court provided much more detailed guidance in the Residential Tenancies Reference, creating a three-step test to analyse whether a grant of ancillary judicial powers was consistent with section 96: Section 92(14) of the Act gives the provincial legislatures the power to create provincial courts and to assign jurisdiction to them, as well as determine the rules of civil procedure in those courts.

Section 97 of the Act provides that the judges of the courts of Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick must be appointed from the bars of those provinces.

Section 98 of the Act provides that the judges of the courts of Quebec must be appointed from the bar of that province.

Section 99 of the Act provides security of tenure for the judges, who can only be removed by joint address of the Senate and the House of Commons.