I watched the entire confirmation hearings of John Roberts this week and like many Canadians who aren’t liberals, I feel as though they unwittingly mock Canada and frankly embarrass us and our banana republic-like process.
Bruce Garvey wrote at the National Post one of many columns that have and will be written by Canadians, usually marveling at their process and shunning ours.
[…] As a Canadian, one can only watch this drama unfold in wonderment, frustration and the stark embarrassment of how we appoint our Supreme Court justices north of the border. In place of all this scrutiny, we ultimately get our judges at the sole discretion of Paul Martin—the same prime minister who continues to flout his anti-cronyism commitment by appointing friends and associates to our flabby, pointless Senate—with virtually no input or meaningful consultation.
Last year, with much fanfare, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler announced the “revolutionary” concession that a parliamentary committee would be allowed to review the appointment of liberal feminists Rosie Abella and Louise Charron to the top court. But only Cotler himself ever appeared before the committee—to praise the appointments, naturally. Some revolution.
You cannot watch Judge Roberts sparring with the likes of Democrats Joe Biden and a “deeply troubled” Ted Kennedy without imagining Mme. Justice Abella—who previously stated that a teenager’s right to practise gay sex was protected by Pierre Trudeau’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a form of expression—squirming under a similar spotlight. While her left-wing activist background makes her a darling of Toronto’s liberal Rosedale set, Canadians know precious little about her beyond superficial newspaper reports. Subject her to the Judge Roberts treatment and they would be in for a shock.
[…] Whatever your preference, the process on display in Washington helps Americans understand what kind of justices will be responsible for interpreting their nation’s Constitution. Sadly, we’re so accustomed to the Supreme Court being part of the Prime Minister’s personal fiefdom that if we ever tried to follow suit, we might have to bring in American senators to do the confirming.
While Americans brace themselves for a contentious battle over who replaces departing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Canadians are spared such indecorum.
Oh the indecorum! Spare us! (Spare us indeed, Jacobs).
She goes on to more or less denigrate our system nonetheless, but I guess she just can’t help being anti-American!
She goes on to quote a university professor, of course, because all liberals always go to university professors first—and usually last—because they’re overt liberal-leftists—sometimes outright Marxists. She chose Ian Holloway, dean of the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario. That’s the university that just awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to abortion mill operator Dr. Henry Morgentaler, because according to their world view, there wasn’t a single person on earth more deserving. So you know where he, and they, are coming from, since the liberal-left activist Supreme Court of Canada struck down any limits on abortion in this country, largely “thanks” to Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
He offered the ever-so-innocent Mindelle Jacobs this brilliant insight, as written by Jacobs in her column:
Canadians haven’t yet acknowledged that our high-court judges have the power to resolve our toughest political problems and set the tone for our social mores, observes Ian Holloway, dean of the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario.
He’s right. Think of the divisive subjects the Supreme Court has wrestled with – issues like medicare, gay marriage and abortion.
“We can’t face up to the consequences of acknowledging publicly that (high-court judges) enjoy political power,” says Holloway. The decisions of our judges carry far more weight than those of our parliamentarians, he adds.
But confronting that reality could unleash public pressure to democratize the appointment system and that would inevitably lead to a U.S.-style process, he says.
“By our standards, it’s a crazy system,” says Holloway. “What Cotler came up with is the least worst system because he ensures that we’re not going to get involved in this American-style circus.”
Vote liberal for more of this tripe.
Writer and Executive Editor for ProudToBeCanadian.ca.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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