TORONTO — Last fall, one Canadian judge was required to appear before a very rare disciplinary panel because he asked a rape complainant why she had not kept her knees together. A decade ago, another had to answer questions about changes he made to a court transcript.

On Wednesday, Justice Bernd Zabel of Ontario faced a four-member disciplinary panel because he arrived in his Hamilton courtroom wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat on Nov. 9 — the day after the United States election.

The judge said it was meant as a joke, and a week later he apologized in his courtroom, stating that the hat was not a political statement or an endorsement of any political views, particularly not “the views and comments of Donald Trump.”

But, as an indication of how pervasive American politics is in Canada and how divisive President Trump has become, that apology was not enough. More than 80 complaints from law schools, lawyers’ associations and individual lawyers poured into the Ontario Judicial Council demanding that Justice Zabel be sanctioned, so public trust could be restored to the bench.