Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Book Takes on Activist Judges

Has the Charter of Rights and Freedoms failed Canadians?

Author and former political science professor Rory Leishman says yes.

And he has written a book called Against Judicial Activism: The Decline of Freedom and Democracy in Canada, to show why.

Essentially, Leishman argues activist judges and Human Rights adjudicators are using the power the Charter gives them to impose their own left-wing ideological preferences on the country.

He backs this up in his book, by citing case after case after case, which show how judges defy the popular will and sometimes common sense to push their own radical agenda.

And some of the cases cited are really quite bizarre.

For instance, Leishman recounts the story of a male transsexual who joined a club called the Vancouver Lesbian Connection.

This man considered himself a “lesbian” but refused to refer to himself as a woman or more properly a “womyn” because to him that word was a contemptible construct used by men to put down females.

Anyway to make a strange story short, the Lesbians did not appreciate this stance on the word womyn and opted to kick him out of their club.

The male lesbian promptly complained to the BC Human Rights Commission, who ruled the womyn lesbians had discriminated against him because he was a male-to-female transsexual.

Sheesh.

Other cases recounted in the book deal with how the Courts browbeat politicians into taking anti-family stances on same-sex marriage, abortion and free speech.

As Leishman puts it, “Many of the hard-won freedoms of Canadians are fast disappearing. Complacent Canadians should beware.”

2 comments:

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I would say nonsense. If anything the court has a libertarian rather than left wing leanings. For example on the Chaoulli case, they struck down the ban on private health insurance in Quebec, which is hardly a left wing idea. On the issue of gay marriage and other so called minority rights, I am glad the court has taken the position they have. In a multicultural and tolerant society like Canada, protecting minority rights is very important even if Right wingers don't like it. The same charter that gives right wingers the right to freely promote their views on the internet is the same charter that protects minority rights.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.