I hope Beverly McLauchlin and her fellow Supreme Court justices read the newspapers. A growing number of respected columnists have concluded that our Supreme Court is now politicized and rushing from one rash judgment to the next.
The failed appointment of Justice Marc Nadon to the top court was apparently just the beginning of a series of political decisions by the Court clearly meant to demean and embarrass the Harper government, much to the delight of the liberal media. Seems no Harper appointment is quite good enough for our highest court.
Followed swiftly by the rejection of Harper's appointment of Justice Nadon was criticism of Harper's next appointment, Suzanne Cote, by never-to-be-satisfied lawyers, law professors and judges. The only selection that will ever satisfy these "experts" is an appointment in line with their own particular political ideology.
Of significance in the Courts ruling against mandatory minimum sentences was the strong opposition of the dissenting justices, Marshall Rothstein, Michael Moldover and Richard Wagner, who said the Courts reasoning for their decision was not "grounded in experience or common sense" and "stretches the bounds of credulity." The dissenting judges basically accused their own court of trying to "frustrate the policy goals of our elected representatives, based on questionable assumptions and loose conjecture." This hardly reassures us that all is well with the highest court in the land.
There are a growing number of Canadians who now believe the Supreme Court has over-stepped its mandate and that judges hand out too many light sentences.
Public confidence in the courts has been steadily declining over the past forty years. According to a 2007 National Justice Survey, the majority of Canadians are inclined to trust the police to solve crimes but no longer trust the courts to impose appropriate sentences.
When the highest court in the land becomes a self-serving institution with judges who have lost their love of justice and are unable to distinguish right from wrong, we all lose.
Maybe we should heed the words of Solomon. "The violence of the wicked shall sweep them away, Because they refuse to do justice." (Proverbs 21:7)
