“Women’s
Rights Not at the Expense of Human Rights”
NGO
in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations
For immediate release Ottawa, August 24, 2004
The appointment today of two hard-line feminist judges, Judges Abella and Charron, both known to be in support of the gay agenda, confirms that the Supreme Court of Canada is a political toy used by the Liberal government to further its own agenda. It seals the fate of the same-sex marriage reference case to be heard by the Court in October.
Madam Justice Rosalie Abella explained the power and biases of the judges best when she wrote in a 1987 feminist book, “Equality and Judicial Neutrality,” (before her judicial appointments).
Every decision-maker who walks into a courtroom to hear a case is armed not only with the relevant legal text but with a set of values, experiences and assumptions that are thoroughly imbedded.
The imbedded biases of Judges Charron and Abella are well known. Madam Justice Louise Charron was one of the presiding judges in the M and H case which held that the same benefits must be awarded to same-sex partners as to common-law heterosexual couples.
She was also Associate Director of the National Judicial Institute which conducts a highly biased gender sensitivity program that promotes feminist legal theories, statistics and analyses.
Judge Abella, who has spent only a very few months in the actual practice of law, has climbed up the political / legal ropes based on her reputation as a “human rights” activist. In fact, many of her decisions were based not on any established law, but rather on her own feminist ideology.
In the Rosenberg (1998) case, Judge Abella ignored a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Nesbit and Egan case (1995), which she was bound to follow as a legal precedent, and instead dismissed that case as “wrongly decided,” and declared that same-sex partners were “spouses” under the Income Tax Act.
The so-called “new” appointment system of judges by the Liberals is merely the “old” system in a not very careful disguise. The Prime Minister still makes the appointment from a short list provided him by the Minister of Justice, and the latter only
appears before a Parliamentary Committee to “review the qualifications and track records of the appointed judges.” This is a charade. The committee cannot vote on the appointments, there is no mechanism to object to nominations, and any decisions of the Committee is not binding on the Prime Minister. This process is nothing more than a Liberal ploy of smoke and mirrors to pretend there have been some changes to the process and democratic input into it, when obviously there has been none.
According to REAL Women’s National Vice President, lawyer, Gwen Landolt:
“The
appointment of Judges Charron and Abella confirms that the characteristics
of impartiality and respect for parliamentary democracy and fairness are no
longer qualifications for appointments to the court and confirms that
judicial appointments are political toys to be used at the government’s
discretion.
The credibility and integrity of the courts have been undermined by the appointments of Madam Justices Charron and Abella, and respect for this court is a part of the past.”
For further information contact:
C. Gwendolyn Landolt
(905) 787-0348, (905) 731-5425
(905) 889-1993
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