Good.

Can't wait to see the effect of a more conservative SCC,one that will reverse the insane decision to grant Charter rights to anyone who sets foot on Canadian soil.

Yes, the opportunity for Stephen Harper to "remake the court" along conservative lines is "opening a debate". As long as it was a Liberal making the court along liberal lines, there was no reason to open that debate. But enough of that, the G&M needs to open the debate now! Harper can replace 6 liberal judges with 6 conservative judges! That's preposterous!

Me, being a sore winner I can't wait for the screams of anguish as Lefties figure this out. All those leftish SCC decisions? Gone! HRCs? Gone! Activist judges pursuing the Lefty Cause? GONE!!!

Aieee!

Its going to be -awesome-.

Good. It's about time.....

No more 'reading things into' the Constitution. Quite possibly some 'reading things out' of the Constitution.

What the gov't can give, the gov't can take away...

The party's over lefties. So sad. Sucks to be you.
Signed, "Steve"

Harper will add open minded judges.

Also no coincidence that they announced now and not two months ago. They were waiting in the hope that a lpc (coalition) minority would be the result of the election and thus they would bs replaced by like-minded liberals. With four years of CPC majority (at least) they can't wait it out that long.

I hope that PMSH returns to the practice of a public vetting process for those he ultimately appoints. That would go a very long way to placating his base and in separating the legislative arm from the judicial.

The Liberal bias is amazing at the glowbean. When Chretien and Martin appoint judges in secret, that's honouring "tradition". When Harper does it, he's "short circuiting" the process.

Maybe Harper found from the Rothstein attempt that actually expecting the Liberals and BQ to participate on a rational basis was too much, and he doesn't want to ignite a series of Clarence Thomas hearings over the next four years.

The appointment of Abella was a disgrace; every position she's stated is so far out of touch with fundamental justice it's sickening.

Perhaps PM Harper will appoint judges that can continue the "tradition" of "reading into" Pierre's Charter. Maybe these appointed Judges will discover that by "reading into" Pierre's Charter, they find the Charter to be as warped and disturbed as the politician who imposed it, and in a unanimous decision return supremacy of governance back to Parliament, thus breaking the ideological straight jacket of Trudeauvian cultism.

All this talk about Harper having an agenda. Of course he has an agenda.Anyone who plans ahead goes. Unlike some former liberal PMs who simply stole the money when the opportunity arose.

The gnashing of 'entitled' teeth is a sweet sound to me! The msm in total meltdown. The faithful collie is on a rampage in the commi hen house, the feathers will fly, what a hoot!! I am waiting for the opening of the secret Liberano 'trust foundations' - there will be some high pitched squawking then. That's entertainment, folks.

The establishment of a 'new' procedure for selecting SCC justices is well worthwhile. Even if its totally dependent upon the majority gov't's will, it sets a precedent thats hard to remove when the CPC is not the gov't. The more light shed on the process the better the candidate that emerges and the less chance of a narrowly selected idealogue. I know, I know, we need 'our' idealogues to balance out 'their' idealogues, but a better process has to start somewhere sometime, so let it start here and now.

Trouble with the so called Progressive judge, there is nothing progressive with Progressives.

The sound of leftie heads exploding is so wonderful to hear in the morning. I'm hoping that the new SCC will trample such "rights" as the right to not be offended by what someone says and the "right" to have the government accomodate immigrants primitive customs.

With regard to Khadr, I'm hoping that the SCC will be far harsher on the US should a similar case come before it in the future. I would have loved to see a SCC decision blasting the US for not shooting the traitorous SOB on the battlefield, as they had every right to do under the Geneva convention as it applies to unlawful combatants, and wasting the courts time by keeping him alive.

From the article:

"“This does appalling violence toward the rule of law,” said University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran. “It denies litigants any practical application of their rights, and it is both unintelligent and cowardly of the Supreme Court.”

Text bolding by me, just to highlight, emphasize and "raise awareness" of angrywords used in what should be level-headed communication.

Did I use any "scarequotes"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes

Rather than speculate on what he will do, find out his stated goal. Go to pm.gc.ca then “media” then “statements” , Top right now is "Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on the upcoming retirement of two Supreme Court judges". Get the RSS feed, cool to have them come to you every time he makes one of these. Now given that the MSM had this information suplied to them, how do you like their take on it?

So Loserontario is worried that PMSH will appoint judges who will interpert and find the Charter to be the piece of crap it is? My my.The girlie left is running scared.And I am so upset that I don't know who to sue!!

"Statement By The Prime Minister Of Canada On The Upcoming Retirement Of Two Supreme Court Judges"

[...]

"... filling these vacancies will be a priority for our Government in the coming months.

The process will be as follows:

To identify a pool of qualified candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General will consult with the Ontario Attorney General concerned, as well as leading members of the legal community. Members of the public are invited to submit their input with respect to qualified candidates who merit consideration at www.justice.gc.ca/eng/scc-csc.html.

The list of qualified candidates will be reviewed by a selection panel composed of five Members of Parliament – including three Members from the Government Caucus and one Member from each of the recognized Opposition Caucuses, as selected by their respective leaders – to review the list of qualified candidates.

The Supreme Court Selection Panel will be responsible to assess the candidates and provide an unranked short list of six qualified candidates to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Justice for their consideration.

The two selected nominees will appear at a public hearing of an ad hoc parliamentary committee to answer questions of Members of Parliament. This is a process that was first established for the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Marshall E. Rothstein in 2006."

http://www.northumberlandview.ca/index.php?module=news&func=display&sid=8267

It's a scary situation to have unelected SCOC Judges who make decisions that coincide with their political bent. It's doubly scary that elected governments hand tough issues to that body for interpretation and fly with it, taking the onus of blame off themselves and placing it on the appointed Judiciary.

The only thing "progressive" about the Liberals/NDP is their dementia.

'Looks like Madam Justice Louise Charron’s decision to exit at 60 is a leftard's turning tail and running now that the CPC are in power. Do we care? Nope. Just makes filling the Supreme Court with common-sense judges, rather than the touchy-feely, social engineering experimentation type, that much easier.

Our Supreme Court decisions have been a disaster for ordinary Canadians during the Liberal hegemony; It's time to get back to genuine justice -- that would be where all the rights don't accrue to the criminals while the victims bleed.

Stephen Sondheim gets it:

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards! That's why I'm so bad!

Officer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!

http://www.westsidestory.com/site/level2/lyrics/krupke.html

Pretty much alarmist drivel from Makin. Even his sources don't support the thrust of this story, i.e. "...independent-minded judges...". This implies a non-ideological slant to appointments, not an overtly right-leaning string of appointments as Makin tries to portray.

And his sources? All of them anonymous except for some weeping university law professors.

Unfortunately, much of the damage has already been done. The SCC in its wisdom decided that treaty land entitlements could proceed. Large swatches of urban land are now native reserves with all the attendant advantage of rural reserves; no property rights, no civil rights etc, etc.

Will be interesting how this plays out in law schools. When PMSH was first elected a number of students were wondering if they should be getting a Conservative membership instead of Liberal. The reason being that all judges are political appointments. (The lawyer that ran for the Liberals in your riding was not there for you -- he/she's looking to be appointed judge when the Liberals finally return to power.)

Hopefully the advice to law students now will see an emphasis on competence rather than political alignment.

G&M, 'The court’s low-key, minimalist decision-making is also trickling down through the court system. “Without binding precedents from the top, the lower courts are not as likely to take chances,” Prof. Cameron said. “Over a period of time, litigants who take advice from their lawyers are less likely to bring claims.” '

Oh no, fewer claims means fewer lawyers and judges. A diminished grievance and entitlement industry will result in fewer patronage appointments for the Liberals to barter with.

Oh My Gawd! Liberal handwringing BedPis*er's are waking up to the fact, that their worst fears are going to happen. I wrote here on Tues the day after Harper destroyed his enemies, that the stars had aligned for Mr. Harper. That he had his majority, that he did not waste his time while a minority PM, but stacked the senate with conservative appointments, so he controls both houses, and that he would appoint two SCOC judges, but even better it looks like he will appoint 5-6 Conservative Judges. Now hopefully he can find 5-6 of them that are around 50 years of age and conservative leaning solid constitutional English Common Law type judges to start undoing the great damage done by the likes of Trudeau/Chretien and others of that ilk. That should give 25 years of stability. I hope he doesn't dither, and rams it in dry to every Liberal/NDP organization and fellow traveller in Canada. Hopefully he will open the Constitution and include Property Rights for all Canadians. The Right To Self Defence, and Fully Informed Jury Rights. The Liberal Dogs have gone Rabid and are biting everything and everyone they can. It's a Beautiful Ting......

PS:Hopefully he starts to defund all UN programs in Canada and starts to withdraw from all UN Treaties in a fast and meaningful way. ASAP. Keep those Trillions spent on the UN and its agenda here in Canada to the benefit of Canadian Taxpayers. UN out, Taxpayers IN.

Hey, this is only the start.

Harper has four years to reload the leadership across thousands of Boards, Tribunals, Commissions etc.

The leftoids will scream loudly as the spit is turned slowly.

Lovely.

Oh the humanity, this Harper bugger will bring in his own judges, judges with common sense, judges who might know business, judges who might have some compassion for the VICTIMS, judges who might have families who they love and want a secure future for. Oh the humanity,not elevating any old lesbian tranvestite gay free heroin clinic using George Bush hater to our highest court. This is just terrible, these new judges might not worship at the alter of the altered out of the closet communist spoiled rich boy( Castro) lovin Turdeau. I hear the wail/whine at the CBC is louder than a 747, after all Turdeau had a high IQ, just like David Suzuker. Well hear this lefties, your hero Turdeau was the most destructive, monetarily and socially bastard this country has ever had shoved into office, and if Harper can turn this previous ship of fools around, it might just save your sorry asses along with us common sense useful contributing members of Canada. Suck it up Globe Star CBC CTV and even you Bourque, Michael couldn't row the boat ashore, Halleluya, for Canada.

After decades of almost uninterrupted Liberal rule our country is stacked with Lib patronage appointments, the courts especially. Expect lots of screaming from the left when it starts to tilt the other way, even though they didn't have a single problem with patronage when it helped their social engineering and other causes.

Piper Paul @ 4:22 am

Bang on point. So much for lowering the temperature rhetorically.

Attaran, Friend of Ignatieff, is a major agitator. He is quoted because he is quoted and quatable not because he is a major thinker in this area. He is a legal stunt man.

I want judges that are (1) first and foremost competent, and (2) take the constitution very seriously - in particular that bit entitled "Fundamental Freedoms".

Just think ... judges who will actually interpret the existing law based on sound principles rather than rewrite the law based on their deep seated political leanings ... the horror, the horror!

Good news. Abella is a creepy woman.

Just two things ...

This news is as good as finally having friendly space aliens land on earth with a wad of new technology to help us live better.

"When liberal dreams come true the reign of terror begins" ... however .. with above news, it's looking more like their worst nightmare is about to begin .... I guess they shouldn't have eaten so many freedoms before they want to bed with Pierre Elliot Trudeau..

Ha! Kate had this creep of a woman nailed all the way back in 2004:

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/000707.html

What a childish and stupid line.

Maybe she should simply retire, and save herself all that anguish.

The next few years will be bad ones for radicals, as they lose their grip on more and more levers of power.

Leave it to the journos to not see the forest for the trees.

We must remember that when people are in power for a time they tend to get more and more liberal ... I don't why, it's one of them there fenomimons.

We must keep Harper's feet to the fire and make sure he does what WE ELECTED HIM TO DO!

I so love it when a plan comes together (not just the "A Team" but General Paton as he views the unfolding battle):

Strict immigration controls and limits on multi-levels of appeals plus NO taxpayer $$$ for those "in transit";
Limitations on the Canadian Human rights apparatchiks - including their paying retroactively for the suffering they themselves have caused;
Revision of ancient and outdated libel and defamation laws and, of course

Limitation on the wages and benefits of the legal profession = turn them into civil servants and especially the 'el Supremo' Court.

Did I miss anything pressing?

I don't understand--the MFM has always told me that judges don't make law and that they're better than dipshits like me. How can they say this is wrong now?

...opening a debate over how to select their successors.

Funny, I don't recall any call for a debate when the Liberals were appointing SCOC judges.

ALLELUIA!

We can only hope that it lasts for at least a generation.

8-1 is better than 9-0.

People need a constant reminder of why things are better this way.

I couldn't finish the Globe story without puking. The left games the system, cloaks it with all sorts of wonderful sounding language as in "charter of Rights and Freedoms" and gets really worried when the game is played by the other side. F*** them.

This is terrible news. Without judicial activism, the ability challenged activists will have to rely on the secret subversion of left minded bureaucrats to find ways to ignore the law and keep themselves in funding and never worker votes. This is a sad day for Hate-Canadians.

Another bonus for taxpayers is that the old Court Challenges Program is unlikely to be revived. A less liberal Supreme Court stops being a sure thing for progressives seeking to push through "bold" constitutional interpretation and they certainly wouldn't want right-wing nut jobs attempting constitutional challenges.

"Prof. Cameron noted that the court’s move toward conservatism was already under way, having begun when Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin rose to the top job a decade ago. The intellectual debate and bold decision-making that had characterized the Brian Dickson and Antonio Lamer courts began to fade.
The court’s low-key, minimalist decision-making is also trickling down through the court system. “Without binding precedents from the top, the lower courts are not as likely to take chances,” Prof. Cameron said. “Over a period of time, litigants who take advice from their lawyers are less likely to bring claims.”

...........Perfect............

Go to pm.gc.ca then “media” then “statements" ~ JJ at 4:26 AM

Thank you for the excellent advice. It sort of makes the G & M article irrelevant.

Hopefully, Harper will bring Criminal charges against Chretien and Martin for Adscam, and also launch a forsenic investigation into the links between Powercorp/Demarais's and the Liberal Party of Canada. Maybe we can still see Chretien led off in leg irons to one of Harpers new super jails.

The article quotes that bastard Amir Attaran - Globe writers are worthless pieces of shit.

What do you call a lawyer, with an IQ of 80?

Your honor.

What do you call a lawyer, with an IQ of 80?

Your honor.

can we now go and burn some cross' in Hedy Frey's district ???

I hope Harper doesn't wimp out and use parliamentary hearings to vet candidates. I want the youngest and most rabid right wingers in there.

"Harper will add open minded judges.
Posted by: a@c at May 14, 2011 2:06 AM "

uh, no, what he will do is appoint severely right leaning judges for the usual reasons.

Then there is hope that much of the damage to our society that has been caused by leftards .... can be repaired.

It will take years to reverse th socialist rape of this Nation. Next should be the bureaucracy.
The lgal system can only go so far. Its the nameless faces in ministries that regulate us to death.
JMO

The notion that Rosalie Abella is the only left-leaning judge on the Supreme Court and that the remaining eight are conservative or middle-of-the-road is just the leftists blowing smoke.

There have been numerous decisions from the McLachlin court that the extreme left would be very happy with, for example:

Chatterjee (2009): upheld the travesty of civil forfeiture without a criminal conviction

Kapp (2008): upheld race-based fishing "rights" (aboriginal in this case)

H. S. S. (2007): made collective bargaining a "right" (while discussing some alleged "principles" of reversing previous judgments without mentioning what those supposed principles are or where they can be found for our edification)

tobacco companies vs. B.C. (2005): upheld the evil of retroactive law

Harper (2004): upheld the election gag law (McLachlin, Major and Binnie dissenting)

Bell (2003): upheld pay equity

Authorson (2003): upheld government confiscation of interest on assets of veterans (a case where a little "judicial activism" would have been welcome)

Bell vs. Can-Am (2002): shut down the so-called "gray market" in satellite dishes

Advanced Cutting and Coring (2001): upheld a Quebec law requiring all construction workers in that province to join one of five unions

Cooper vs. Hobart (2001): held that regulators need not be held responsible in any way for their actions resulting from their own laziness, incompetence or malfeasance

Blencoe (2000): essentially held that due process and other legal rights do not apply to cases before human rights commissions (technically this is correct, because s.11 refers to those "charged with an offense", but the ugliness of the situation is there for all to see; perhaps they could have "read in" the oversight as in Vriend?)

I'm not opposed to judicial activism where it's appropriate. The biggest problem is that the Charter of Rights is full of errors that desperately need to be fixed (a topic about which I have posted in these spaces before). The s.11 exemption of "human rights" commissions from due process is one of the biggest mistakes - which I believe was deliberate on behalf of Pierre Trudeau.

At least the McLachlin court has a competent chief justice who is always willing to defend freedom of expression. Antonio Lamer was a flaky egotist who was always trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and Brian Dickson had a very shallow mind. Note, however, that some of the above decisions were written in whole or in part by judge McLachlin.

The G&M article is a textbook case of media bias; every paragraph in what purports to be a news article is shot through with unexamined assumptions and stereotypes.

I suspect, however, that the fears of the authors are quite overblown. They are based on the tired myth that Mr Harper has been keeping a "hidden agenda" in his breast pocket until he secured a majority. Interestingly, the gloating comments above seem to be based on the same myth. I fear, however, that Mr Harper will disappoint those of us who want judges to stick to interpreting the laws that Parliament has passed and who can draw the Court back from its activist role. Nor have I any hope that Mr Harper will initiate a serious review of the Charter and its perversions of civil rights.

"What do you call a lawyer, with an IQ of 80?

Your honor.

Posted by: eastern paul at May 14, 2011 1:47 PM "
--------------------------------------------
Hmm, I thought they were called straight A law students..