Saturday, April 25, 2009

Um, What?

Is Rob Silver giving us insight into the views of the Ottawa Establishment, on the Khadr judgment? If so, this should give all of us some pause. Silver brings out the classic conservative "activist judges" argument to complain about the judgment against the Harperites (remember Silver is a Liberal).

The idea that the judge was holding the government to account for consciously ignoring its own signature on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, never appears to cross his mind. Despite the initial eyewash about his belief that the government "should" intervene on Khadr's behalf, in Silver's mind this is all about the government's "right" to conduct foreign policy as it sees fit and judicial interference in that "right".

To Silver, it all comes down to the difference between "should" and "must", no matter what documents the government signs. No wonder Khadr was in jail during the Liberal years. Sadly, I get the feeling this is the elite consensus, in Ottawa. Law is to be ignored or applied at the whim of the prime minister in power.
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