Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Supreme absurdity

In ruling (six to one) that Stephen Harper's appointee to the Supreme Court is  not qualified, the Supreme Court has, once again, embarrassed itself.

Christie Blatchford nailed it last Friday:
"It is a disgraceful decision, the final howl of which is this: How dare the executive branch, the government, have gone and picked a judge and amended a law?" ...
So did Brian Lilley:



Today Andrew Coyne agreed that the Supremes' ruling is absurd:
... "this is just the sort of flaky decision the Court is capable of ..." [although Coyne wanders off into irrelevant territory and ridiculous and gratuitous insults to Judge Nadon.]
 As did  Constitutional Law Professor, Grant Huscroft:
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the Nadon Reference is as bad a decision as the Court has made in recent memory.
... The result is absurd, according to Justice Moldaver, because Judge Nadon would become eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court if he were to rejoin the Quebec bar for as little as a single day.
This supremely absurd decision is a result either of gross over-thinking of the problem or of a conspiracy by activist judges to disqualify someone they don't like. Both possibilities cast serious doubt on the "wisdom" of their previous rulings.

In any case, dissenting Justice Moldaver offered a simple remedy. Nadon should immediately rejoin the Quebec bar. All Stephen Harper has to do is reappoint him.

5 comments:

Martin said...

There is something unseemly about a club as exclusive as the court ruling on who is allowed to join. One would hope this simply isn't 6 of them voting a blackball.
One way to see would be for Nadon pass the Quebec bar exam again and be reappointed. This would cause such a political firestorm that Harper is very unlikely to do it.

Still one wonders why Nadon didn't apply to join 5 months ago? I would also like to know if Nadon is the first appointee since 1875 not to be member of the Quebec bar.
The court ruled he wasn't elgible for a Quebec seat, not that he was unqualified, Seems he is at least as qualified as Rosie Abella.

JR said...

Martin, I agree about the unseemliness of this ruling.

As for Nadon joining the Quebec bar, according to the Supreme Court Act and all the experts that were consulted prior to his appointment, there was no need for him to be a member of the Quebec bar. (But given the absurd SC ruling there is a requirement now.)

What I wonder about is why the Harper government referred the matter to the Supremes in the first place.

Anonymous said...

This information is interesting. It was news to me.
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/features/2014/03/21/supreme-court-marc-nadon-appointment-lawyer-rocco-galati/

Anonymous said...

all scoc judges are appointed by a prime minister. who gave said court the right to over rule over any appointment by a pm? what a screwed up place.

Anonymous said...

The "SupremeCourt" is an activist organization, unaccountable, unelected, and undemocratic, just the way Pierre Trudeau wanted it. This latest conjured ruling is yet another example of what a joke this country has been deliberately distorted into. Trudopia is a pretty F'd up place.