NP View: Canadian Bar Association's progressive agenda undermines the rule of law |
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NP View: Canadian Bar Association's progressive agenda undermines the rule of law
They have far too much power over who sits on the bench
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According to a Canadian Bar Association statement last week, media criticism of a judge who threw evidence out of two different trials due to his belief that police were racist is apparently a “crude effort at undermining public confidence in the judiciary.” The lawyers’ organization didn’t defend particular judicial decisions, or point to any flaws in reporting. Instead it implied that such criticism should never be published in the first place.
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If writing accurately about what the courts are doing risks undermining confidence in the judiciary, the problem is not the people who are reporting what the judges are doing. There is nothing mystical about the judiciary that puts it above criticism. The public deserves to know how institutions are operating, especially when they are not operating in the public interest.
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The April 2 statement from CBA President Bianca Kratt “warns media on dangers of delegitimizing judges.” Kratt refers to “Recent media commentary” that characterizes a “sitting judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as biased.” She concedes that “sentencing principles” are “properly the subject of public debate” but that examining a judge’s bias somehow “falls outside the bounds of constructive discourse.”
The CBA is not a disinterested party here. In addition to serving as a professional organization, it also has a representative on the federal judicial selection committee, as well as on many provincial counterparts. That is, it has a role in selecting the vast majority of judges in the country at every level, including the Supreme Court.
Although the statement does not name the judge or the specific media criticism in question, it is clear from context that Kratt’s target is a column written by the National Post’s Jamie Sarkonak about Ontario Superior Court........