[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

Yes, the former for sure, but also the concern is, with wilful blindness or actual knowledge of the Liberals - which of course is much worse.

[viper37]

The Chinese govt gave 1M$ to Trudeau's foundation, via a local businessman:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-csis-uncovered-chinese-plan-to-donate-to-pierre-elliott-trudeau/

[Barrister]

So after being hammered on the China issued the last few weeks, Trudeau announces that he will appoint a "special rapporteur" to investigate and make recommendations.

So this is a new one for me at least.  Anyone heard of appointing a "special rapporteur" before?

I hate judicial inquiries so glad he didn't go that route, but what powers or budget will this person have?  How independent will they be?

[crazy canuck]

Yes, although the appointment of one normally occurs in other contexts where the expertise of someone who is truly independent can help inform decision makers to make better policy decisions.

It doesn't quite fit in this context since this is not really about making policy choices, it is more about what happened in the last couple elections and how to ensure it does not happen again.  It seems to me the appointment will only deal with the second issue without considering the first.

[crazy canuck]

Interesting (and somewhat surprising) case out of Ontario regarding election spending limits.

https://coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/item/21269/index.do

Fairly simple facts. The government amended the spending limit legislation to double the period of restriction from 6 months to one year prior to an election but kept the spending limit the same - cutting the amount that could be spent prior to an election by third parties in half.

In a 2-1 decision the Court of Appeal strike the legislation being a breach of the Charter and not saved by s.1.

I am a bit surprised by this result.  The trend in recent years has been to uphold spending limits.  The court was persuaded that third party spending has a legitimate role in informing the electorate and so cutting that already restricted spending in half was detrimental to democracy.

This may be one of those be careful what you wish for cases.  The challenge was brought be unions against legislation created by a Conservative government.  But I wonder how those same unions might feel if spending limits were not effective, and their message could be drowned out by corporate third party spending.

Tricky issue.

[viper37]

Fear and loathing at the Montreal Gazette

Seems like they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

If they switch their stance, they lose the readers they have.  If they keep their stance, they don't gain new readers.

Okay — Habs, crime, health, and English. The last one is about angryphones. We had a town hall on Monday, and we talked about this new approach. People were asking about city hall, and they said, no, we're not doing it. People asked about the National Assembly, and we were also told no. Arts? Environment? Also, all no. You can't ignore clicks, but that can't be all a newspaper is. We're a legacy newspaper. It's got to be about more than that. If you don't cover the National Assembly unless it's about Bill 96, people will stop reading the newspaper, obviously.

[Grey Fox]

Postmedia is a bad owner, always have been.

[viper37]

Postmedia is a bad owner, always have been.

Yes.  But it was cool to see an English text talk about Angryphones

[crazy canuck]

Justice Brown of the SCC has recused himself from the Court while his conduct at an event in Arizona is considered by the Judicial Council.

The details of the allegation against him that have been reported publicly are a bit salacious.  He allegedly got drunk approached some women in another group, followed them when they headed to their rooms, and was punched several times by one of the companions of the women he was following.

There is much that is disturbing about this case.  Apart from the obvious concerns about the allegations of the conduct, there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

For what it is worth, I think he has been one of our strongest jurists on administrative law issues.

[Barrister]

Justice Brown of the SCC has recused himself from the Court while his conduct at an event in Arizona is considered by the Judicial Council.

The details of the allegation against him that have been reported publicly are a bit salacious.  He allegedly got drunk approached some women in another group, followed them when they headed to their rooms, and was punched several times by one of the companions of the women he was following.

There is much that is disturbing about this case.  Apart from the obvious concerns about the allegations of the conduct, there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

For what it is worth, I think he has been one of our strongest jurists on administrative law issues.

The last I had heard was that the court was refusing to discuss just what the allegations against Brown J even were.

Where has this been reported?

[Barrister]

So here's a fascinating, but very, very long story about lawyer, former judge and professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/mary-ellen-turpel-lafond-indigenous-cree-claims

New story.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mary-ellen-turpel-lafond-liberating-1.6774228

Ms. Turpel-Lafond says it's "liberating" to have all her honourary degrees and awards stripped from her.  Still refuses to acknowledge the specific allegations against her.

Meanwhile, more and more of those awards and degrees are stripped from her.

[crazy canuck]

Justice Brown of the SCC has recused himself from the Court while his conduct at an event in Arizona is considered by the Judicial Council.

The details of the allegation against him that have been reported publicly are a bit salacious.  He allegedly got drunk approached some women in another group, followed them when they headed to their rooms, and was punched several times by one of the companions of the women he was following.

There is much that is disturbing about this case.  Apart from the obvious concerns about the allegations of the conduct, there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

For what it is worth, I think he has been one of our strongest jurists on administrative law issues.

The last I had heard was that the court was refusing to discuss just what the allegations against Brown J even were.

Where has this been reported?

https://vancouversun.com/news/high-court-justice-under-investigation-after-altercation-arizona-resort

[viper37]

there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

The media are in a frenzy because he was a Harper appointee.  If he had been a Chrétien/Martin appointee, or even more recently named by Trudeau, they wouldn't even mention it.
<sigh>

[Grey Fox]

there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

The media are in a frenzy because he was a Harper appointee.  If he had been a Chrétien/Martin appointee, or even more recently named by Trudeau, they wouldn't even mention it.
<sigh>

No they would, just different ones.

[viper37]

there is also the concern that the media reports have included that he was a Harper appointee.  I fear we are now following the American approach of thinking the administration who appointed the judge is relevant. It certainly is in the American context, but there is no reason for us to copy that.

The media are in a frenzy because he was a Harper appointee.  If he had been a Chrétien/Martin appointee, or even more recently named by Trudeau, they wouldn't even mention it.
<sigh>

No they would, just different ones.

Even the National Post would not go so low.