Roundup: Flirting with unconstitutional legislation

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The bill to mandate sexual assault training for judges was a bad idea from the start, when Rona Ambrose first tabled it years ago, and the current iteration that this government is putting forward is little better, especially now that MPs have decided they need to start amending it to add other things. While Ambrose’s initial bill was blatantly unconstitutional (that the Commons passed on a whim because of the political syllogism: Something needs to be done, this is something, therefore we must do this), and needed to be gutted in the Senate to make it acceptable, the current version was more or less acceptable (barring one or two possible issues), but it seems that MPs want to make it blatantly unconstitutional again.

Former Supreme Court of Canada executive legal officer Gib van Ert warned back in February that this bill would be an invitation to demand that judges take training in other areas than just sexual assault, and lo and behold, we are there, with demands for the “social context of systemic racism.”

https://twitter.com/btaplatt/status/1321246603781570560

van Ert makes the point that if judges need to be seen as independent, then bills like this, where politicians appear to be giving them marching orders, is a bad look and will undermine the justice system. But since when to populist impulses consider the consequences of their actions? They don’t.

Good reads:

  • Prime minister Justin Trudeau conceded that the pandemic “really sucks” and warned that if people don’t follow guidance, it could mean cancelled Christmas.
  • Incidentally, we have now passed over 10,000 COVID-related deaths in this country.
  • The Clerk of the Privy Council is offering to testify at finance committee about why his office redacted those WE documents, but the opposition has been resisting.
  • The Trump administration removed their illegal aluminium tariffs again.
  • The Correctional Investigators report calls out sexual coercion and violence in prisons, which the government promises to tackle (but given their record…)
  • The Senate has adopted hybrid sittings and voting, and the Government Leader is proposing his own “less partisan” special committee to review pandemic spending.
  • Senator Lynn Beyak was found to have illegally donated to Trump’s election campaign, which her office says was “in error.”
  • Green Party leader Annamie Paul says her strong second-place showing should be a “warning” to the Liberals – but she won’t ask any of her MPs to step aside for her.
  • Here’s an interesting look at Saskatchewan’s problem with impaired driving, which was highlighted in the province’s election given Moe’s past convictions.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column makes note of the return of private members’ business (months late), and how a hung parliament affects it.
  • Kevin Carmichael hears from tech innovators about why they’re losing faith in Trudeau’s promises to help their sector.
  • Susan Delacourt tries to read the entrails of Monday’s by-elections.
  • Paul Wells gets mail the government’s experts on reforming solitary confinement, and the news is not good (and could in fact be worse than presented).
  • Colby Cosh gives a once-over of the Saskatchewan vote totals, and how the “Western separatist” fared.
  • My column looks at how the two committee motions over the past couple of weeks portend a worrying trend of weaponizing the committee process for partisan ends.

Odds and ends:

There are calls to renew a plan to turn Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill into a car-free pedestrian street/electric LRT route that crosses the river.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Flirting with unconstitutional legislation”

  1. What isn’t Erin O’Toole the face of this stuff instead of Michelle Rempel Garner and Pierre Poilievre?

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