Arbitrarily Undemocratic

Will Canada’s judges and court system keep letting us down in what is the area in which they ought to excel? The Supreme Court of Canada indicates their new focus on their web site: “Much of our collective sense of freedom and safety comes from our community’s commitment to a few key values: democratic governance, respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law, and accommodation of difference.” Accommodation of difference sounds like a noble pursuit, but what does it mean? Simple: judges have become advocates - they make law now - they do not interpret it anymore. You need a same-sex marriage law; they decide and we provide one. Will it affect polygamists or pedophiles or people who want to marry animals? Does it mean we are going to wind up buying junkies their fixes? Of course it does. And the Supreme Court of Canada will lead the parade for their rights as well. And we will congratulate ourselves for our unique generousity and humanity. In the meantime our democracy depends on a very small cast of characters to work. So far representatives from all political parties have performed so gutlessly that you have to wonder why they ever ran for public office in the first place. If you do not believe that citizens should have a say, perhaps you shouldn’t be an MP. If you do not believe that you can do wrong perhaps you shouldn’t be a judge. If you believe in democracy, perhaps you shouldn’t applaud when anti-democratic methods are used to promote pet causes of yours. They will not give back to you the rights you gave them. At this moment the Canadian government and its point person, Anne McLellan, is trying to fend off another attack on our court system. This time the result is is even worse than child murderer Karla Homolka's secret trial and sweetheart deal. It involves thousands of survivors of the victims of this country's worst act of terrorism. How can judges act so arbitrary, you may wonder? A prime minister is not given this kind of unchecked power in the Constitution. Why have our MPs bestowed this power on the courts? Whatever happened to the power of the people to decide their own government? Are those days gone forever? Is democracy just another inconvenience for the governing set to work around? Finally, is this lackadaisical approach somehow related to the freefall of our health system, which has dropped to 30th in the world as ranked by the World Health Organization? What else of what we hold dear is at risk? [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 22, 2005]