Accountability Looks a Lot Like Patronage
The Conservatives really are something, aren't they? After years of complaining about the courts being stacked with "liberals" (a bogus allegation) they're doing the same thing in reverse, stacking the courts with conservative ideologues.
Canada's legal community raised fears that the selection of judges will be politicized in "bare-knuckle partisan battles" that will damage the credibility of those who sit on the country's superior courts.
Well, that would be what they want, wouldn't it? It's a well-known fact that the Conservatives have little to no respect for the judiciary in this country, though Canadians have consistently expressed a great deal more confidence in judges than in politicians. If the goal is to reverse that trend, what better way than to appoint a bunch of partisan hacks to the bench?
It gets better. How are they doing this? Simple: stacking the judicial nominating committee with unqualified hacks with ties to the Conservative Party, including firefighters and graphic artists.
Gee, aren't you glad the "corrupt" Liberals are gone, replaced by the "accountable" Conservatives?
posted by Ryan Ringer @ 2/13/2007 01:03:00 p.m.
4 comments
4 Comments:
CG,
After years of complaining about the courts being stacked with "liberals" (a bogus allegation)
Are you sure it's a "bogus allegation"? Check out this post. Liberal donations from judges, during Chretien and Martin's periods, was $100,983.98. To all other parties, it was $8716.74. Do the math.
Olaf:
I count you as one of the reasonable Conservatives wandering around the blogsphere so I have to believe that you would have some reservations about the blatant politicization of the judiciary selection process.
If for no other reason than it is inevitable that the Conservatives will lose an election in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later :)) and they will have given the Liberals a gift wrapped system for appointing liberal judges.
Personally, I thought the old way of doing it resulted in too much political involvement and if Mr. Harper would have come up with a way to reduce it I would be all for it. However, he has gone in the other direction and that is troublesome.
It's not like judicial activism exists. Judges simply take account of the facts and dispense with their wisdom from on high. Only those who want to cripple the judiciary would do so.
That should read, "Only those who want to cripple the judiciary would question their wisdom."
I must have been half-awake when I wrote that.
Post a Comment
<< Home