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SUNDAY SPECTATOR
August 29, 2004
Judgement calls
"Don't try and pull the wool over my eyes Judge Judy says. (This is Judith Sheindlin, the New York City family court judge who later became a daytime TV star in the same jurisdiction.) I'm smarter than you." While her tone might be different -- there would be no self-deprecating humour in it only her patented scorn and contempt for opponents -- Canada's newly-appointed Supreme Court justice Rosalie Abella might adopt this as her own judicial motto. She is an embodiment of a class of people who genuinely believe themselves to be smarter than the rest of us to be ahead on the historical curve. So far ahead and moving so fast that they cannot even hear the patter of the people running to keep up with them. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Irwin Cotler our country's new Justice Minister introduced Ms Abella to our highest bench. I laughed at first -- even though I knew it wasn't a joke that the introduction of Ms Abella and of Louise Charron two radical feminist Ontario appeal court judges to the vacant places among the Santa suits was probably meant to provoke people like me. To provoke generally anyone who disagrees with the notion that the law exists to advance projects in social engineering -- to create by extra-Parliamentary means what Josef Stalin called "the new Soviet man" (although Stalin might be dismissed today as gender-insensitive and we need a new word to replace the discredited "Soviet"). Mr. Irwin claims the Justices Abella and Charron were not appointed for political reasons that their unambiguous commitment to e.g. same-sex marriage had nothing to do with the Supreme Court's impending rulings on that very subject that they were chosen only for their stellar qualities from a large constellation of brilliant orbs. Moreover he claimed that the candidates would be thoroughly vetted by Parliament in a special three-hour hearing the next day by a committee that would not be entitled to ask questions of either appointee and whose recommendations would not be binding even on themselves. (Thus fulfilling the prime minister's campaign commitment to a new era in government accountability.) Were I Judge Judy I would reply Don't try and pull the wool over my eyes. I'm smarter than you. Not really smarter however for I'm at a loss to suggest what could be done to resist the continuing transformation of Canada's Supreme Court into a politically-correct Star Chamber. Mr. Cotler is himself a mediocrity a bubble in the pond a plaything of the Zeitgeist. He is a hack -- in politics as I am in journalism though compared to me he knows how to rise. One gets the impression listening to him not only that he actually believes what he is saying but that he is honestly unaware that anyone watching might consider it to be blathering nonsense. But what can be done when to coin a phrase the members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition are not "real men"? Those at the confirmation hearing had precious little time to say anything at all on or off camera but wasted what they had complaining about the ludicrous process. Not one -- especially not one Tory -- could find anything disagreeable to say about either of the candidates. I submit that a Tory who can't find a single disagreeable thing to say about Rosalie Abella is a Tory in the middle stage of a brain transplant. This is the woman who attempted to establish as a young family court judge such remarkable legal principles as that no child support payment can be "inappropriately" high; or that the final contractual terms of a divorce settlement may be reopened at the woman's whim. These and other such creative judgements were struck down by higher courts. But now Ms Abella IS the Supreme Court. Her views on anal intercourse alone -- and they are extensive -- would have been worth exploring. You don't have to be very smart however to know what Mr. Cotler knows and for that matter what his puppeteer Paul Martin knows about the political system they have inherited. They know that the most extraordinary nonsense can be uttered in Canada without fear of challenge by anyone in the mainstream of public opinion. Not because everyone agrees but because no one has the courage. And besides even those who are vexed come to appreciate that it is more of the same -- just another small step on the road to perdition. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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