"Language is not the supreme criteria for top-court appointments" is the headline on this editorial in the Globe and Mail.  (Knowing that the singular is "criterion" is evidently not a job requirement for headline writers at the Globe and Mail.)  Anyhow:

One of the more contentious debates in the last Parliament centred on a private member's bill that would have required all Supreme Court of Canada judges to be bilingual.

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A Supreme Court vacancy should be filled by the best available candidate. He or she will spend the next 10 to 20 years deciding key federal-provincial disputes and, perhaps, social issues as momentous as euthanasia and capital punishment.