Top N.S. judges defend right to ban staff from wearing poppies in courtrooms
Nova Scotia’s top judges are defending their peers’ decision to ask that staff not wear poppies in provincial courtrooms, a move slammed by Premier Tim Houston and others late last week.
In a statement issued Sunday, Deborah Smith, chief justice of the province’s Supreme Court, and Perry Borden, chief judge of the provincial court, said the judges’ request was not about disrespecting veterans or denying remembrance, but rather about maintaining courtrooms as “unbiased and neutral” spaces.
They cited the Canadian Judicial Council’s Ethical Principles for Judges, which warns that even seemingly harmless symbols, like the poppy, “may be interpreted as reflecting a lack of impartiality or the use of the position of the judge to make a political or other statement.”
The judges provided an example of a non-veteran individual charged with assaulting their partner, “a highly respected veteran of the Canadian military,” showing up to trial the day before Remembrance Day.
“The accused walks into the courtroom and sees the judge, the court clerk, and the sheriff all wearing a poppy,” they wrote. “That individual will likely have some discomfort or doubt about the neutrality of the proceeding.”
The courtroom poppy controversy erupted last week when Halifax-based Frank Magazine reported that two judges in Kentville — Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jean Dewolfe and Nova Scotia Provincial Court associate chief judge Judge Ronda van der Hoek — had requested that the Sheriff’s Services Manager tell his deputies that poppies must be removed before they step into the courtroom.
In a post to X , Houston said politicizing the poppy is “disgusting.”
“The poppy is not a political statement,” he wrote. “It is a symbol of remembrance and respect for the fallen and those who served and continue to serve our country.”
He said the “very rights freedoms” upheld by the courts exist because of sacrifices made by veterans, which is why he finds “it impossible to believe any judge would ban a symbol of respect for the fallen, our veterans and their families.”
Houston finished by threatening to introduce legislation enshrining everyone’s right to wear a poppy in the workplace through the first 11 days of November, “Because of the actions of these judges.”
It has come to my attention that earlier this week there was an order issued prohibiting individuals working in certain court facilities from wearing poppies while on duty in those locations. This order was issued under the guise that the poppy is somehow a ‘political statement.’…
— Tim Houston (@TimHoustonNS) November 7, 2025
In a statement to National Post last week, a spokesperson for the N.S. courts could not confirm the courthouse or specific judges to which Houston was referring, but did say that conversations about wearing poppies did not occur in the courtroom.
“Nor did a judge ban poppies from the courtroom,” Andrew Preeper said in an email, explaining that members of the public can still do so freely and staff who wanted to wear one should speak with the presiding judge.
He, too, explained the importance of courtrooms remaining neutral to “ensure the fair administration of justice.”
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said on X that he was “dumbfounded and disgusted” by the judges’ decision and also accused them of politicizing the symbol. He said it reflects a deeper cultural problem of the tendency of some, “particularly (but not exclusively) on the left,” to see everything through a political lens.
“For such people, politics has become a secular substitute for religion, a place where some people seek transcendence and ultimate meaning, bound up with totalizing claims,” he wrote.
Citing T.S. Elliot, Czech novelist Milan Kundera and Ecclesiasticus, he said wearing a poppy remains a civic ritual that unites Canadians around the shared “virtues of duty, honour, and love of country.”
“So the duty to remember is pre-political. It is one of the things that bind us together in community, and through time to previous generations.”
I am equally dumbfounded and disgusted by the politicization of the remembrance poppy.
— Jason Kenney ???????????????? (@jkenney) November 8, 2025
My friend @Davidptarrant makes some excellent points about this.
The deeper problem is that for many in our hyper secular age, particularly (but not exclusively) on the left, *everything* is… https://t.co/5xH9X52xIu
The subject of poppies in courtrooms also arose in Saskatchewan last week, where a Crown prosecutor who wore one on her gown later received an email informing her it wasn’t permitted because of a court “practice directive,” as reported by CBC.
“We have freedom of speech because of what these brave men and women have done for our country,” Lana Morelli said.
“And not being able to honour them by wearing poppies while I’m arguing for freedom and protection tugs at my heartstrings.”
Saskatchewan introduced legislation in 2013 enshrining the provincially regulated employees’ right to wear a Royal Canadian Legion-recognized poppy in their workplace from Nov. 1 to 11 annually, so long as it doesn’t pose “a danger to health, safety, or welfare of the worker or others.”
Ontario and Manitoba also have similar laws and the same caveats, though theirs covers the period from Nov. 5-12.
— With files from Chris Lambie.
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