Archived News Releases

February 1, 2006

Attorney General Gord Mackintosh has announced the appointment of Rob Finlayson to the provincial court of Manitoba, effective immediately.

"He made a significant contribution to Manitoba's justice system in his role as Manitoba's assistant deputy attorney general and I have every confidence that he will interpret the law with wisdom, be an impartial arbiter of fact and serve the best interest of justice in his new role as a judge," said Mackintosh.

Finlayson graduated from the University of Manitoba Law School in 1975. He articled with Manitoba Justice and has practiced law as a Crown attorney since 1976. He held the positions of senior Crown attorney and director of prosecutions before being appointed assistant deputy attorney general in 1998.

He has served on a number of federal and provincial committees including the Uniform Law Conference of Canada and the federal, provincial and territorial Heads of Prosecutions Committee. He was appointed by the attorney general to co-chair the Child Online Protection Committee to establish Cybertip.ca. It is now Canada's national tip line for reporting online child pornography and internet-luring incidents to police and it provides related information to the public.

Finlayson also chaired a working group of Crown attorneys and chiefs of police that produced a January 2005 report exploring the prevention of miscarriages of justice.

The new judge was selected from a list of candidates recommended by an independent judicial nominating committee. The committee was chaired by the chief judge of the provincial court of Manitoba Raymond E. Wyant and included three community representatives, representatives of the Law Society of Manitoba and the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Bar Association, and a provincial court judge.

A swearing-in ceremony will be scheduled as soon as possible.

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