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Trudeau eventually chose to appoint Alberta Judge Sheilah Martin to the top court and promoted sitting Justice Richard Wagner to the role of chief justice. The reports said the episode led Trudeau to doubt Wilson-Raybould’s judgment, and it soured their relationship long before the SNC-Lavalin affair came up.

A day later, a Globe and Mail report contained another leak, this time saying that Wilson-Raybould preferred Joyal due to his “stand in favour of individual rights.” The report said the larger plan was to then appoint an Indigenous justice to replace Joyal as chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File

Wilson-Raybould said she won’t comment on the accuracy of those reports, noting that Supreme Court appointment deliberations are supposed to be “highly confidential.”

“I do feel compelled to say that I have not — as some have suggested — been the source of any of these stories, nor have I ever authorized any person to speak on my behalf,” she said.

She said leaks about Supreme Court appointment deliberations “could compromise the integrity of the appointments process, our institutions and potentially sitting justices.”

On Wednesday, Conservative MP Lisa Raitt wrote to Federal Judicial Affairs Commissioner Marc Giroux — whose mandate includes protecting judicial independence — to ask for an investigation into the leaks.

“A plain reading of the facts strongly suggests that political actors have leaked the content of discussions regarding an appointment to Canada’s highest judicial body,” said her letter. “If indeed this is true, it is an egregious case of political interference and one that severely injures the independence of the judiciary.”