Three new B.C. Supreme Court judges in Vancouver, another raised to appeal court

The federal government has appointed three new judges to the British Columbia Supreme Court and raised another to the B.C. Court of Appeal.

A statement from the Department of Justice says Justice Ronald Skolrood, who has served on the B.C. Supreme Court since 2013, has been raised to the province's highest court, replacing Justice G. Bruce Butler, who is scaling back to a part-time workload.

The three newly appointed justices include Anita Chan, a Crown prosecutor with 27 years of experience, Joseph Doyle, a private practice lawyer with experience in civil, criminal and administrative law, and Kevin Loo, a former appeal court law clerk and now partner in a Vancouver law firm.

All three will work at the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Doyle replaces Justice Karen Horsman, who was previously elevated to the Court of Appeal, while Loo fills the vacancy created when Justice Joel Groves switched to a part-time role, and Chan replaces Justice Grace Choi, who resigned in July.

The statement from the Justice Department says, of the 565 judges appointed at the Superior Court level in the last seven years, more than half are women, and the appointments also reflect greater representation for visible minorities, Indigenous and LGBTQ populations as well as those who self-identify as having a disability.