Who is running the country anyway?

By Gerald Hall —— Bio and Archives July 15, 2014

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The majority of Canadians would agree that free expression is the lifeblood of democracies and that freedom of speech, especially on matters of conscience, is a fundamental right under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There is increasing evidence for the perfect validity of questioning whether or not our Supreme Court really believes this.

Why is Stephen Harper being so ridiculed and demonized by the opposition NDP, Liberals and lawyers for raising his eyebrows over some recent Supreme Court decisions as though the Supreme Court were infallible and every ruling to be unquestionably accepted as a sort divine edict? It is hardly surprising that Thomas Mulcair and the NDP has turned to the court after the Board of Internal Economy ruled that they must repay the $1.7 million for the partisan mailings at taxpayers' expense they freely and fragrantly distributed. Appealing to the court is clearly yet another blatant attempt to take away power from parliament and turn it over to the judiciary. This thinking can be traced back to Pierre Trudeau who decided that rights of the majority should be trumped by rights of minorities and granted lop-sided authority to courts and judges. The Supreme Court is hardly a stranger to bad decisions and their recent disgraceful decision to disqualify Quebec judge Marc Nadons’ appointment to the top court on biased technicalities prompted Supreme Court Judge Justice Michael Moldaver to accuse them of "engaging in cherry-picking" of the appointment criteria and making decisions on the basis of convenience instead of objectivity. The Supreme Court should never have been granted the right to make lawmaking decisions and it would by no means be exaggeration to suggest that recent Supreme court rulings are unacceptable judicial activism, not in the interests of all Canadians and by no means righteous.