The Supreme Court of Canada Drives A Dagger Through The Heart of Canadian Democracy.
by Robin Mathews
“I say the ruling has come down – Do Not Accept It! It is a tragedy for the nation. It is a betrayal of Canadian Democracy. I am saying do not accept the ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada. I am saying hire planes and fly gigantic banners across the country carrying the names of the four judges who betrayed Canada and Canadians. Marie Deschamp. And Rosalie Abella. And Marshall Rothstein. And Michael Moldaver. Write on the banner: “They hate us”. Memorize their names. Tell your children that if they are bad, they will grow up to be like those people who betrayed Canadian democracy. Write the judges letters. Smother them with letters of protest.”
~ Robin Mathews
The betrayal of Canada by four judges of the Supreme Court of Canada trumpets the collapse of one of the primary protectors of Canadians – Canada’s highest court. The decision of the four judges to deny the challenge presented by Boris Wrzesnewskyj concerning the 2011 election in Etobicoke-Centre is irrational, irresponsible … and it may be much more.
Canadians must see that the protectors of their freedoms, of their democracy, are falling like ten pins before their eyes. The Supreme Court of Canada is just one of the protectors now gone. Wake Up. Canadians, Wake Up!
Let us be crystal clear on that matter. Let us remember two points.
The first is that the case before the Supreme Court of Canada was taken on a SAMPLE count of voting. If all the polling stations could have been examined, hundreds more ‘bad votes’ would have been counted. The judges ignored that fact. The judges ignored the cost to an ordinary citizen that a full count would have involved. Shame on them!
The judges could have ordered Elections Canada to count the ‘bad votes’ in every polling station in the constituency. They didn’t. In addition, the judges permitted Borys Wrzesnewskyj to pay more than $300,000.00 to undertake a court challenge fundamental to Canadian democracy. Shame on the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada! Shame on them all!
The second point is that the judges could have taken a crystal clear High Road and ruled – that for the protection of Canadian Democracy in these special circumstances – a by-election must be held.
The judges of the Supreme Court of Canada should have stated over and over and over and over in their decision that “free elections” must be without taint, without taint of any kind. That decision would have forced a clean-up of election practices in Canada. Fast! Instead, the decision handed down has given the Stephen Harper forces license to continue practicing election fraud.
Talk about the 1%!! The four judges were so far away from the needs of the people, from what is called ‘natural justice’, from the fundamental and basic meaning and intention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, from all that the Common Law has meant in democracies for centuries, and from what Canada essentially means to Canadians that one has to ponder just who or what the four believe they are serving.
Already the Harper Conservatives have been convicted of Election Fraud! The Harper Conservatives ADMITTED GUILT in the 2006 election, admitted to using 68 CONSTITUENCIES to funnel funds illegitimately through the system. The Harper Conservatives fought Elections Canada in court for five years before admitting guilt and to having practiced ELECTION FRAUD IN 2006. And now they are accused of major Election Fraud (the Robocall Scandal) in the 2011 election. More on that farther on.
Fools and charlatans are saying – “The Supreme Court ruling has come down on the Etobicoke-Centre election challenge. Accept it and move on.”
I say the ruling has come down – Do Not Accept It! It is a tragedy for the nation. It is a betrayal of Canadian Democracy. I am saying do not accept the ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada. I am saying hire planes and fly gigantic banners across the country carrying the names of the four judges who betrayed Canada and Canadians. Marie Deschamp. And Rosalie Abella. And Marshall Rothstein. And Michael Moldaver. Write on the banner: “They hate us”. Memorize their names. Tell your children that if they are bad, they will grow up to be like those people who betrayed Canadian democracy. Write the judges letters. Smother them with letters of protest.
The Stephen Harper forces rule by deception, deceit, betrayal, secret pacts, election fraud, suborning of public officers, and every other betrayal of democratic trust they can finesse.
Still, in the face of those facts, Canadians believe that we have antiquated and rarely-used protections of our democracy – which are there in times of need. Canadians must awaken and realize the protections are falling like ten pins – and that Canada is closer than it has ever been to open civil violence in the struggle to protect democracy in the country.
(1) One of the most important, most rarely used, “antiquated” protections of the democratic freedoms of Canadians rests in the powers of the Governor General to refuse prorogation of parliament (the dissolving of parliament on the request of the prime minister) and to refuse the passage of bills passed in the house by ‘majority’. Those powers have been violated, stolen, kidnapped, raped by Stephen Harper.
On December 4, 2009, Harper dragooned Governor General Michaelle Jean into a prorogation in order to avoid a coalition that would have run him out of power. She may have been an ignoramus about Constitutional matters in Canada, but her failure was gigantic, nation-destroying, and unforgiveable. Then on December 30, 2009 she permitted another prorogation to Harper so that he could avoid facing the charges that he cooperated in torture and abuse in Afghanistan. Michaelle Jean’s failures are almost beyond belief. “But,” you say, “she didn’t understand”.
That cannot be said of the present Governor General who was a Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. David Lloyd Johnson “understands” all too well. He was – by a very strange coincidence – a Harper Conservative, and by another strange coincidence was appointed by Stephen Harper to shape the terms under which Justice Oliphant would investigate the relation of Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney. Key question was the huge amount of bribe money floated in the Airbus Affair (purchase of 34 planes by Air Canada). In 2007 Schreiber alleged “secret commissions” were paid to Brian Mulroney – and Stephen Harper had to act fast (to cut off all chance of revelation).
By a strange coincidence he appointed David Lloyd Johnson to shape the terms – and terms were crafted that prevented the Inquiry (2009) from examining the key and central Airbus facts or from recommending criminal investigation and trial!!
All went well for Stephen Harper. Mr. Justice Oliphant came as close to calling Brian Mulroney a serial liar as he could do. But he didn’t go near the Airbus bribery facts. And very shortly after David Lloyd Johnson was, by strange coincidence, named Governor General of Canada. But that is not all.
(2) In December of 2011 the Federal Court of Canada ruled the Harper legislation to gut the Canadian Wheat Board was illegitimate because the government had ignored a requirement to have a vote of Wheat Board members. Nonetheless, David Lloyd Johnson, legal expert and Governor General, signed the illegitimate bill into law, and, since, has said and done nothing to challenge that illegitimately passed law.
The Governor Generalship in Canada, many Canadians will insist, is now a farce and a fraud.
(3) The Supreme Court of Canada, they will declare, is now a farce and a fraud. Elections Canada …?
(4) Elections Canada is failing massively on the investigations into Robocall fraud in the 2011 election and into the accusations against Harper MP Dean Del Maestro who, according to court documents, filled out a false return with Elections Canada and made an illegal contribution to his own campaign. The chief and hard-working enforcer of Elections Canada rules, William Corbett, recently resigned before the end of his term. Why? Why?
His replacement is an ex-ombudsman for National Defence, Yves Cote. On his leaving the post with National Defence, the Armed Forces magazine Esprit de Corps damned him with faint praise. Clearly the conclusion might be he was NOT an effective ombudsman there. Marc Mayrand, Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer, has expressed confidence in Cote – which the rest of Canadians need not have.
Look at Elections Canada. When the Robocall Scandal broke – and widespread investigations were absolutely necessary – Marc Mayrand should have taken public platform and asked for an immediate $10 million from the Harper government to conduct full and complete investigation. He should have refused to take no for an answer. He should have told Stephen Harper publicly that after the Conservative Party admission of Election Fraud in the 2006 election the $10 million must be forthcoming. He should have been willing to fight tooth and nail for the funds to investigate. He wasn’t.
Elections Canada is taking too long on the Robocall investigation. It is taking too long on the investigation of Dean Del Maestro. What is going on at Elections Canada? Is it, too, collapsing before the neo-fascist Harper onslaught?
(5) Readers cannot say that – despite those things – all is well because we have Parliament, the House of Commons with a dynamic Party System at work. We do not have those things. The only person fighting Harper corruption with any credibility is Elizabeth May, the only Green Party MP. Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae are empty, nearly useless ciphers, pretending the Canadian parliament is fine – and is not facing its greatest threat in history.
Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae should be undertaking every blockage ruse they can invent in Parliament. They should be before audiences all over Canada. They should be organizing, wherever possible, applications for injunctions against Harper actions. They should be visiting the Governor General to force his hand about signing legislation illegitimately passed. They should be openly preventing House of Commons business from proceeding. They should be loudly and publicly visiting every provincial premier and Opposition leader in Canada. They should be using every tactic they can discover, invent, or imagine to force Canadians to see the crisis their democracy is facing, to force the Mainstream Press and Media to inform Canadians.
We do not have defense of Canadian democracy in the provincial legislatures. As Stephen Harper rapes the Canadian parliament, as he pushes through a secretly designed, oppressive destroyer of provincial powers – the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement – no provincial premier will get a court order demanding ratification be cancelled until full information has been given, full debate has been conducted, and amendments put forward by interested Canadian governments included.
The decision has been made to destroy the democratic challenge made by Borys Wrzesnewskyj concerning an (almost certainly improper) election in Etobicoke-Centre. The four Supreme Court of Canada judges responsible, Marie Deschamps, Rosalie Abella, Marshall Rothstein, and Michael Modaver cannot be condemned strongly enough, and those judges cannot be openly criticized often enough, publicly, frequently, tirelessly.
The decision has been made, we are told. Now we must ‘accept it and move on’. That advice comes from … you can guess who gives that advice.
Don’t heed it. Don’t accept it. Don’t move on. Fight the decision in every way you can fight it. If the Supreme Court of Canada is willing to destroy democracy in Canada, Canadians must be willing to destroy the Supreme Court of Canada.
_________________
Robin can be contacted at: Robin Mathews <rmathews@telus.net>