Justice means upholding the law, not appeasing political masters

The following is a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Sun, as submitted on April 24, 2016.

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Letter-writer Kevin Shea (“A Sham”, April 23) should understand that our judiciary's sole duty is to uphold our laws and our constitution as written. In the case of Mike Duffy, it is not Judge Vaillencourt's fault that the Senate rules are so unclear, and that the Crown did such a lousy job of making the case for Duffy's guilt.

The reality is that the aptly-named “Harper Government” rammed through bills it knew wouldn't pass legal muster, perhaps for the sake of making base-arousing political statements. Therefore, considering how costly it is to run a government, the Harper years were an expensive waste of time, money and resources. Ergo, our former Prime Minister and his minions were supremely incompetent legislators.

To see the decisions of our judges and judiciary as some sort of biased 'attack' on Stephen Harper only demonstrates the perspective-warping and infantilizing effect of right wing populists on their followers.

James Deagle
Ottawa