shockedcanadian
Diamond Member
- Aug 6, 2012
- 44,152
- 43,180
- 3,605
USTR and your State Department understand that Canada does not share your values. America has adjusted their economic relations accordingly. The corrupt and abuses here to not just impact citizens but also U.S businesses and corporations. This is a corrupt country, especially in Ontario.
www.thestar.com
Ontario’s top judge is warning that attacks on the justice system risk eroding the rule of law and ultimately causing society to fall into disorder, at a time when the courts are a frequent target of criticism from police and politicians.
“Leaders in all sectors of society — government, law enforcement, media, and civic institutions — share a responsibility to uphold respect for the judicial process, even when they disagree with particular outcomes,” Chief Justice Michael Tulloch said in a speech delivered last week at the Truscott Lecture in Justice at the University of Guelph.
The erosion of the rule of law rarely happens suddenly, the chief justice said.
“It happens gradually — through repeated questioning of institutional legitimacy, through the normalization of distrust, and through the suggestion that legal outcomes are determined by politics rather than by law.”
Premier Doug Ford, who has long taken the view that jurists are releasing too many people on bail, recently called for those hearings to be live-streamed. “Everyone is held accountable, including our judges,” Ford said in March.
He also echoed the calls from the Toronto Police Association that the judge who presided over the trial of Umar Zameer should apologize for concluding, based on the evidence before her, that three officers had colluded and lied in their testimony. An OPP report found otherwise last month, though it has been widely criticized as a whitewash.
“Maybe the judge should apologize for accusing them of everything under the sun,” Ford said.
The Ontario government has also said it wants to have a role in the selection of federally-appointed judges to higher courts, while Ford attracted much criticism in 2024 when two of his ex-staffers were placed on the selection committee for provincial court judges, and the premier then declared he wanted to appoint “like-minded judges” who would hand down longer sentences. Multiple legal organizations expressed concern that the independence of the judiciary was under attack.
Tulloch’s remarks represent a rare public rebuke by the judicial branch, although he doesn’t refer to specific incidents. He said that judicial independence “is not a privilege granted to judges for their own benefit,” but rather a constitutional protection for the public.
“It exists so that every person who appears before a court can be confident that their case will be decided according to the law and the evidence — not according to political pressure, institutional interests, or public sentiment,” he said.
As Doug Ford targets courts over bail, Zameer case, Ontario chief justice warns of attacks that ‘undermine the legitimacy of the judiciary’
“It happens gradually — through repeated questioning of institutional legitimacy, through the normalization of distrust, and through the suggestion that legal outcomes are determined by politics rather than by law.”
www.thestar.com
Ontario’s top judge is warning that attacks on the justice system risk eroding the rule of law and ultimately causing society to fall into disorder, at a time when the courts are a frequent target of criticism from police and politicians.
“Leaders in all sectors of society — government, law enforcement, media, and civic institutions — share a responsibility to uphold respect for the judicial process, even when they disagree with particular outcomes,” Chief Justice Michael Tulloch said in a speech delivered last week at the Truscott Lecture in Justice at the University of Guelph.
The erosion of the rule of law rarely happens suddenly, the chief justice said.
“It happens gradually — through repeated questioning of institutional legitimacy, through the normalization of distrust, and through the suggestion that legal outcomes are determined by politics rather than by law.”
Premier Doug Ford, who has long taken the view that jurists are releasing too many people on bail, recently called for those hearings to be live-streamed. “Everyone is held accountable, including our judges,” Ford said in March.
He also echoed the calls from the Toronto Police Association that the judge who presided over the trial of Umar Zameer should apologize for concluding, based on the evidence before her, that three officers had colluded and lied in their testimony. An OPP report found otherwise last month, though it has been widely criticized as a whitewash.
“Maybe the judge should apologize for accusing them of everything under the sun,” Ford said.
The Ontario government has also said it wants to have a role in the selection of federally-appointed judges to higher courts, while Ford attracted much criticism in 2024 when two of his ex-staffers were placed on the selection committee for provincial court judges, and the premier then declared he wanted to appoint “like-minded judges” who would hand down longer sentences. Multiple legal organizations expressed concern that the independence of the judiciary was under attack.
Tulloch’s remarks represent a rare public rebuke by the judicial branch, although he doesn’t refer to specific incidents. He said that judicial independence “is not a privilege granted to judges for their own benefit,” but rather a constitutional protection for the public.
“It exists so that every person who appears before a court can be confident that their case will be decided according to the law and the evidence — not according to political pressure, institutional interests, or public sentiment,” he said.
