Canada’s horrendous justice system needs an outside inquiry to recommend reform

Accountability is a buzzword of our time—except for Canada’s lawyers and judges. But things can change. Making it happen requires concerted pressure on politicians at all levels. Only they have the power to impose the collective will of citizens against collective resistance in the justice system. Judges in the Supreme Court of Canada said this about good-faith dealing, in Bhasin v. Hrynew: “Commercial parties reasonably expect a basic level of honesty and good faith in contractual dealings. … A basic level of honest conduct is necessary to the proper functioning of commerce.” But lawyers’ and judges’ own operations echo too often the famous saying by Lord Acton that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even senior judges protect rogue colleagues when they can—as in any other trade union.