The Committee’s responsibility under the Justices of the Peace Act is to classify candidates for appointment as “Not Recommended”, “Recommended” or “Highly Recommended”. Classifications are based on a thorough review and evaluation process. The evaluation process may or may not include an interview. Classifications are reported to the Attorney General, who recommends candidates for Order-in-Council appointments to the Ontario Court of Justice.

No. Your classification is not disclosed to you.

No. You may not contact the Committee directly to ask about your application, interview or classification.

No. Applications are accepted only during the Committee’s advertising period for a specific justice of the peace vacancy. Applications are not accepted on an ongoing basis.

The Committee advertises for applications for vacant justice of the peace positions upon the request of the Attorney General.

All vacancies are advertised and posted on the JPAAC website, here.

If you would like to receive e-mail notification of advertised vacancies go to the Advertisements page of the Committee’s website and click on the “Subscribe to Vacancy Notifications (via E-Mail)” link on that page.

This is the Committee’s vacancy notification e-mail list. If you are new to this registry and wish to be informed of future vacant justice of the peace positions, sign up here to receive all notices of advertised vacancies for justice of the peace positions throughout the province.

You will receive an acknowledgement e-mail following the receipt of your application. Incomplete or late applications will not be processed for review by the Committee.

A panel of Committee members will review and evaluate your application. Once the evaluations are complete the Committee will determine which applicants will be interviewed. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Following the evaluation and interviews, all candidates will be classified. The results of the classifications will then be reported to the Attorney General. The Attorney General may, at his/her discretion, recommend a candidate for appointment as a justice of the peace to the Lieutenant Governor in Council to fill the vacant position.

All applications received become the property of the Justices of the Peace Appointments Advisory Committee and will NOT be returned.

All communication from the candidate is to be made through the JPAAC Coordinator. It is not appropriate to contact members of the Committee at any stage of the application and evaluation process.

Updates to personal and/or referee contact information are permitted. You must e-mail the JPAAC Coordinator at JPAAC.Info@ontario.ca and advise of the change. The change will be noted on your file.

In addition, you must inform the Committee of any changes to personal and other matters (see question 24 of the application form) such as a claim, complaint, review, suspension, sanction or any disciplinary action by a professional organization or regulatory body or involvement in litigation at any time after you have submitted your application.

No. The Committee does not provide feedback to candidates.

The process involved in classifying candidates is lengthy. From the time of the posting of an opening until the position is filled will take several months. Once you have received the acknowledgement that your application has been received, please do not contact the JPAAC Coordinator regarding the status of your application.

A description of the role of a justice of the peace can be found here.

No. The justice of the peace bench is a lay bench. There is no requirement that an applicant for the position have legal education or experience in the justice system. As a result, justices of the peace have varied educational, business and community backgrounds. All new justices of the peace, regardless of background, go through a rigorous education and mentoring program prior to presiding on their own.

Vacancies are advertised by location referencing the name of a municipality where a criminal court of the Ontario Court of Justice is located (e.g., London, Cornwall). Assignments will be at this court location and other courts within the region.

You will be assigned to a location for a vacancy to which you applied. Assignments will include criminal and provincial offences courts in your region as well as telewarrant. Occasionally, you may be asked to preside at other courts in Ontario.

Requests for transfer to a different court location within the first five years of appointment will only be granted in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Associate Chief Justice–Coordinator of Justices of the Peace. Please ensure that you are able and willing to preside in the court(s) you are considering before applying to a particular vacancy.

Maps showing the location of courts in each region can be found here.

Full-time presiding justices of the peace are paid $172,010 per annum; in addition, they have a comprehensive pension and insured benefits package, including annual vacation of twenty-two (22) working days.

Section 6 of the Justices of the Peace Act provides that a justice of the peace who is 65 years of age or older may continue in office until he or she reaches 75 years of age, subject to the annual approval of the Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice.

No.

Yes. Justices of the peace often preside in courts throughout their region which can involve considerable travel. Travel is also required for initial and continuing education. All justices of the peace, regardless of the region or vacancy to which they are assigned, can expect to be assigned for up to one full rotation in telewarrants.

No. You will not be paid for your relocation expenses.  Please only apply to those vacancies that you are able to fill without requiring a move, or to which you are willing to move in order to fill.

You may apply for an advertised vacancy during the period stated in the JPAAC advertisement.

As the Committee updates its application form regularly, ONLY the form posted during the advertising period is accepted. Previously posted forms are not acceptable.

When a vacancy for which you wish to apply is advertised, download the current application form. Read the application thoroughly, observe the courts, review the FAQs to answer questions and complete the form. E-mail your application as an attachment in PDF format to the Committee as detailed in the instructions. Other than updating your contact information or referees, you are not allowed to make changes to your application after the closing date.

You are required to use the current prescribed application form, which is available during an advertising period only. Please ensure that you read the application instructions carefully and provide detailed and complete answers.

Applications for justice of the peace vacancies are accepted during an advertising period only.

Courts in Ontario operate in both official languages, English and French. Justice of the peace positions designated as “bilingual” require a Superior level of proficiency in French, in addition to a high degree of proficiency in English. If you apply for a position identified as bilingual and are selected for an interview, you will be required to complete a standardized language proficiency test on which you must achieve a Superior level of proficiency.

If the Committee requires you to complete a language proficiency test, you will be contacted by the JPAAC Coordinator. Candidates will receive results after appointments have been made.

I took a French language proficiency test as part of a previous JPAAC application process but did not score at the Superior level. When may I retake the test in order to apply for a posted bilingual vacancy?

French proficiency tests are valid for five years (as per the Ministry of the Attorney General’s French Language Services Office). If you have been tested as part of the JPAAC application process and wish to be re-tested within the five-year period, you may do so independently at your own expense. Contact the JPAAC Coordinator for information on how to arrange for Ontario government-approved French language testing.

Details regarding your testing outcomes may be provided in the Supplementary Information section of the application form. You may also be asked to submit a copy of the evaluator’s report.

Only applications received by the closing deadline can be considered by the Committee. Late applications will not be considered. All applications received become the property of the Justices of the Peace Appointments Advisory Committee and will NOT be returned.

You may apply when a vacancy is advertised.

No. Each application must be submitted on the current prescribed application form with content supporting the specific advertised vacancy(ies). During an advertising period, the form can be downloaded here. The Committee makes changes and refinements to the application form for each discrete process.

You must e-mail the JPAAC Coordinator at JPAAC.Info@ontario.ca and advise of the change. The change will be noted on your file.

No. The Committee will review only the documents requested in the prescribed application form.

If you possess multiple degrees, you may submit copies of all your degrees or just the highest-ranking degree.

IMPORTANT: If you are selected for an interview, you must submit proof that you meet the education requirement. You will be asked to e-mail a copy of post-secondary degree(s) or diploma(s) or certificate(s) you have earned or an official transcript (together with a certified translated copy/ies, if applicable) by a specified deadline date for submission. If you fail to submit proof that you meet the education requirement, your interview will be cancelled. Applicants are urged to compile this information as soon as possible and have it ready when requested. If you do not have any post-secondary education and completed the Equivalency portion of this application instead, you are eligible for an interview and will be exempt from providing copies of certificates and diplomas.

Yes. Candidates who hold university/college degrees/diplomas from outside Canada are required to supply the Committee with a translated certified copy of the degree/diploma/transcript when submitted in a language other than English or French.

IMPORTANT: If you are selected for an interview, you must submit proof that you meet the education requirement. You will be asked to e-mail a copy of all (or the highest) post-secondary degree(s) or diploma(s) or certificate(s) you have earned or an official transcript (together with a certified translated copy/ies, if applicable) by a specified deadline date for submission. If you fail to submit proof that you meet the education requirement, your interview will be cancelled. Applicants are urged to compile this information as soon as possible and have it ready when requested. If you do not have any post-secondary education and completed the Equivalency portion of this application instead, you are eligible for an interview and will be exempt from providing copies of certificates and diplomas.

Proof of Post-secondary Education: Yes. If you are selected for an interview, you must submit proof that you meet the education requirement. You will be asked to e-mail a copy of all (or the highest) post-secondary degree(s) or diploma(s) or certificate(s) you have earned or an official transcript (together with a certified translated copy/ies, if applicable) by a specified deadline date for submission. If you fail to submit proof that you meet the education requirement, your interview will be cancelled. Applicants are urged to compile this information as soon as possible and have it ready when requested. Applicants would be well advised to contact their post-secondary institution as soon as possible to give adequate time to process the request for proof of post-secondary education.

Equivalency for Post-secondary Education: If you do not have any post-secondary education and completed the Equivalency portion of this application instead, you are eligible for an interview and will be exempt from providing copies of certificates and diplomas.

The following is a sample of the mistakes the Committee has received during our previous application periods:

• did not indicate that you meet the legislated requirement of having a university degree or a diploma granted by a college of applied arts and technology or another institution as noted under subsection 2(1.1) of the Justices of the Peace Act, or that you meet the equivalency requirement (subsection 2(1.3))
• applied to a bilingual justice of the peace position which, as noted in the advertisement, requires a Superior level of proficiency in French. As you did not indicate that you would be able to conduct hearings in French without further training, you therefore do not meet this mandatory requirement for consideration for a designated bilingual position.
• used the wrong application form or a form from another process
• vacancy locations for which you wish to be considered not indicated on the application form
• applied to a location not currently advertised
• does not have the required 10 years of full time paid or volunteer work experience
• did not provide the required four referees, two of which must be work/professional and two of which must be from the community

The above is not an exhaustive list, rather it represents only some of the most common mistakes. Please check your application thoroughly before submission to ensure it is complete. Incomplete applications will not be considered by the Committee. Applications cannot be amended following the closing date of an advertised vacancy.

To be considered for a vacancy for an advertised justice of the peace position, you must clearly indicate that you meet all of the requirements of that vacancy. Failing to demonstrate that you meet the requirements of the vacancy and the General Selection Criteria will result in a “Not Recommended” classification.

All applications received become the property of the Justices of the Peace Appointments Advisory Committee and will NOT be returned.

During the evaluation process, Committee members will consider very carefully how the candidates meet the General Selection Criteria for the position. Throughout the application process, candidates shall provide evidence that they meet all of the General Selection Criteria. In addition, the candidate review process will consider the desirability of reflecting the diversity of Ontario’s population in appointments of justices of the peace and an assessment of the skills, abilities, and personal characteristics of candidates against those desired in a justice of the peace.

You must send an e-mail to the JPAAC Coordinator explaining that you wish to update your personal contact information and provide the necessary updated information in that e-mail.

You may withdraw your application for a vacancy at any time in the process, before or after the closing date for applications. All withdrawals must be clearly stated in writing.  E-mail the JPAAC Coordinator and in your message state the specific vacancy location(s) from which you wish to withdraw along with your full name and home address. You may withdraw your application for a single vacancy or for all vacancies for which you have applied in this manner.

Our application requires that you are able to demonstrate an understanding of the role of a justice of the peace. Imperative to the evaluation of your application will be your insights from observing justices of the peace, presiding over different types of courts for which justices of the peace preside, including criminal bail court, criminal case management court, provincial offences early resolution court, and provincial offences trial court. We strongly recommend that applicants make every effort to observe each of these courts in action for each of the vacancies to which they have applied. The application form (question #12) requires applicants to detail the observations that they have made.

It is imperative to the evaluation of your application that you observe justices of the peace in different courts. Currently, there are some restrictions on in-person public access to courthouses and many courts are being accessed remotely by audio. The Office of the Chief Justice provides direction on how one can access the courts. Detailed instructions on how to access the courts can be found here: Public and Media Access to Court Proceedings. Check the site often for updates. All courts are open to the public, though there may be some restrictions and limitations.

To request information for remote hearing access, please contact the relevant courthouse, preferably by email, using the subject line, “Hearing Access Request” and identifying that you are requesting access to hearings or a set of hearings (provincial offences, bail, etc.) presided over by a Justice of the Peace. E-mail contact information for Ontario courthouses is available here and phone numbers are available here. Please exercise patience with court staff as they are trying to accommodate many requests and give yourself enough time to fulfill this requirement before submitting the application.

The classification process may or may not include an interview.

Yes. During the classification process for a vacancy, the Committee considers information from a number of sources, including the application provided, references, security and disclosure checks and other interviews held before the Committee.

All efforts are being made to conduct interviews via video-conference. Depending on the circumstance at the time of the interview, the interviews may be conducted entirely via video-conference or partially via video with some Committee members in the room with you (at a safe physical distance) and some participating via video link.

All efforts will be made to make the interview process safe and to minimize travel.

If the interview is conducted via video-conference, all efforts will be made to use a commonly accessible video-conferencing platform and to ensure security of the link. Opportunity to test the link will be provided before the interview date, and should the technology fail or the connection be lost, the interview will be rescheduled without affecting the outcome. Technology issues will not affect the outcome of this process.

For those parts of Ontario where access to broadband technology may be limited, candidates may be asked to travel to a location in your region where broadband is accessible. Details will be worked out in advance of the interviews.

No. Travel expenses and any related costs to attend the interview are not paid by the Committee.

The Committee will make an effort to reschedule your interview.

All contact with the Committee is to be done through the JPAAC Coordinator.

The Committee’s policies and processes for the review and evaluation of candidates are in compliance with the accessibility provisions under the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001. Please contact the JPAAC Coordinator to advise of the accommodation required.

The Committee will classify you.

The Committee receives a significant number of applications, all of which are thoroughly evaluated. As a result, a considerable amount of time may elapse between the submission of an application and the request by the Committee for the candidate to attend an interview. There may be a very short period of time between an invitation to a candidate to attend an interview and the date of the interview.

The interview panel will consist of at least three (3) Committee members – and likely more – present at the interview, including judicial members of the Ontario Court of Justice as well as public members appointed by the Attorney General of Ontario.

You do not need to bring anything to the interview, unless requested ahead of time by the JPAAC.

Yes. You may be asked to destroy those notes at the conclusion of the interview.

You should contact all referees in advance of your application to advise them of your application and of the role of a justice of the peace.

If the contact information for a referee you have provided has changed, you must submit this information to the JPAAC Coordinator immediately.

Referees may be contacted any time after your application is filed; however, they may not be contacted at all, at the discretion of the Committee.

Submit any request for change to the JPAAC Coordinator with an explanation in writing for the change and the Committee will consider your request.

Candidates for appointment as a justice of the peace who are and/or have been members of one or more professional disciplinary organizations are required to permit the organization(s) to disclose to the Committee or the Attorney General any complaints, charges, insurance or compensation claims made against them.

Professions with disciplinary organizations include but are not limited to: accountant, forester, lawyer, military officer, nurse, paralegal, police officer, social worker and teacher.

You must complete and sign a separate form for each professional disciplinary organization to which you are and/or have been a member.

Although the JPAAC does not make appointments, the Committee understands that the usual timeline for assuming one’s duties is short, approximately two to three weeks—potentially sooner—after receiving notification of the pending appointment.