Harper Unfairly Smears Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
On May 1, 2014, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement accusing Canada's Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Right Honourable Beverly McLachlin, of attempting to make an "inappropriate" telephone call to the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper.
It would be completely inappropriate for a member of the Supreme Court to discuss a case before them directly with the Prime Minister. However, in this instance there was no "case" before them, and more importantly there was no attempted telephone call. The Prime Minister's Office has refused to provide details of any specific telephone call and now refuses to answer any questions about the matter during question period within the House of Commons.
Politicians are not known to hold punches, but attacking the integrity of the judiciary of our country -especially the Chief Justice of our highest court - is incredibly inappropriate for any politician. Disagreeing with court decisions is fine, but comments like these are unprecedented in our history as a nation.
This is not a partisan issue. The Canadian Bar Association and Ontario's Advocates' Society have been quick to condemn the Prime Minister's unprecedented and completely inappropriate attack on the Chief Justice. Eleven former presidents of the Canadian Bar Association released a joint statement on the matter which highlights why these comments are completely beyond the pale. View that statement here.
At this time the Prime Minister has not appointed a new Supreme Court Justice. Instead, for the past few weeks the Justice Minister has been publicly disagreeing with the Supreme Court's decision and now the Prime Minister has begun calling the Chief Justice's integrity into question. On top of this, the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister refuse to answer questions about their actions or comments in the House of Commons, because that would be "inappropriate."
If you are not familiar with the events leading to the current situation, a more complete timeline is below.
To summarize the situation:
- A seat reserved for a Quebec jurist became available on the Supreme Court Bench when Justice Fish announced his retirement in April 2013;
- The Government asked the Chief Justice to participate with a selection committee;
- The Chief Justice did participate with the selection committee as requested, and flagged an eligibility issue which was likely already known to the Government;
- Federal Court Justice Marc Nadon was appointed by Stephen Harper to the Supreme Court;
- The eligibility issue was raised shortly after the appointment by a Toronto lawyer, the Government of Quebec, and the Federal Government, challenging or seeking clarification regarding Justice Nadon's appointment;
- The Chief Justice did not attempt to telephone the Prime Minister, either before or after Justice Nadon's appointment;
- The Chief Justice did not contact the Government about the eligibility issue after July 31, 2013, two days after she met with the selection committee and more than two months before Justice Nadon's appointment; and
- Over ten months following the Chief Justice's participation with the selection committee and after losing multiple Supreme Court references, Stephen Harper suddenly alleges the Chief Justice made an "inappropriate" telephone call to him which he did not accept. He refuses to provide specifics or respond to questions about his comments.
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