The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 9-0 that the secretive security certificate programme to detain terrorist suspects is unconstitutional. Stephen Harper’s parliamentary demand that related measures continue, unbalanced by human rights protection, has been rejected by our Supreme Court.
Stephen Harper’s behaviour this week shows us why it is wrong to place such power in his hands. Mr. Harper used parliamentary privilege to publicly smear a fellow member of parliament in a disgraceful attempt to link an innocent parliamentarian to terrorism. Concurrently, the Harper Tories aired attack ads against Ralph Goodale alleging connections to crime even though the RCMP has completely cleared him of any wrong doing.
In public, Harper Tories have attacked the innocent.
Further, the Prime Minister is vigorously defending placing those agreeing with his biased views as judges, as well as going to extremes to ensure the sun does not set on anti-terrorist measures legislated in panic that have served no purpose since put in place.
Rightly, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against security certificates. Rightly the judiciary is speaking out against the attempts to select judges on the basis of their bias. Rightly, the public must speak up to protect the innocent against the groundless attacks of Mr. Harper and demand that our laws be balanced.
Those Harper Tories who act in such public ways now should be feared for what their private thoughts are for the power of a majority government.
