Well folks, he’s done it again. The silver-haired fox, Mr. Stephen Harper, has once again announced that he’ll be appointing a new Supreme Court Justice to the bench, but this time he has no intention of putting his justice on display for all MPs to see. Russell Brown is third in the list of Supreme Court justices that Harper just, sort of, said “here you go, deal with it” (the other two being Clément Gascon and Suzanne Côté from Quebec). This has been against the general trend of keeping Supreme Court appointments accountable and transparent, although it is perfectly legal.
BFFs
Ottawa Citizen
Brown will join 6 other justices that have been appointed by Prime Minister Harper and who were supposed to allow Harper to pass legislation with as little resistance as possible. But, uh-oh Stevie, the Conservatives have won only 2 of the last 9 Supreme Court Cases in the past 3 years. According to Ontario Court of Appeal Justice, Bradley Miller (recently appointed by Harper), the Big Bad Supreme Court has been “unfair” to poor little Harper and his blue brigade.
It should come as no surprise then that Brown is going to become the newest justice, seeing as he seems to share many of the same opinions as Mr. Miller, who is one of Harper’s vanguards in Ontario. These include: banning assisted suicide (gasp), prohibiting prostitutes to strut their stuff on Canadian streets (the horror), and stopping junkies from shooting up in a controlled environment with the supervision of nurses (I feel faint); all points which the Supreme Court struck down. I should also like to point out that Mr. Miller believes that the Government should protect the sanctity of marriage like it should protect our forests and rivers. Because, in case you were wondering, yes, if we let gays get married our forests will burn and our rivers will boil. Superior/Supreme Court Justice material? I’ll let you be the judge.
“Legislator? I barely even know her!”
Edmonton Journal
Another point of controversy that surrounds the balding Albertan is his outspoken attitude online. Being a former professor at the University of Alberta’s school of Law, Justice Brown is no stranger to the blog sphere and often gave his two cents whenever he could. Some of my favourites include his description of Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau as “Unspeakably Awful”, and his evaluation of his holiness, the Dalai Lama as “not a nice man”. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the ways of the web, there is a name for someone who spends an exorbitant amount of time in chat-rooms and forums constantly arguing and making sure that everyone is aware of their opinion; we call these people ‘Trolls’. Just mentioning the name conjures images of middle-aged, overweight, lonely people sitting in their basements alone with an often suspicious-smelling, frozen dinner. Now, I’m no expert on trolls, but let’s just say that I could definitely see Mr. Brown hiding under a bridge, barring travellers from passing.
With the upcoming election, and Harper’s decision to make Mr. Brown a Supreme Court Justice after only two years of Judicial experience, it makes you wonder if Mr. Harper anticipates not being re-elected and wants to “leave his mark” on yet another integral part of our democracy. You weren’t content with the Senate, Steve? You just HAD to ruin the Supreme Court too?