Saturday, January 22, 2005

What part of harmful don‘t you understand?

More and more Canadians are finding out that Charter Rights that they took for granted are in fact non-existent. Canadians are finding this to be true, not from reading it in a newspaper, they are finding this out from federally appointed judges in a civil, family or criminal court room when they are in desperate need of their Charter Rights.

Law Societies across Canada have the power to police their members. This power is not to protect the interests of lawyers, the Canadian Bar and Trial Lawyers Associations protect the interest of the lawyers. The Law Societies, including the Law Society of Newfoundland, protect the interests of the public, it deals with complaints about lawyers, from the public.

A Newfoundland defence lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, is facing a disciplinary hearing before the Law Society of Newfoundland. It has been reported that Mr Kennedy has said he was disappointed the Lamer Inquiry into the justice system would not be examining the role of judges, and "It's the trial judges, some of whom don't know what they are doing," and "Part of it is as a result of political appointments. Part of this is as a result of intentional or unintentional biases." He has said nothing that has not been said before and is common knowledge. I see nothing in what he has said that a member of the public would complain to the Law Society about.

The complainant is Derek Green, the chief justice of the Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Sir William Holdsworth said:

“The judiciary has separate and autonomous powers just as truly as the king or parliament...The judges have powers of this nature because, being entrusted with the maintenance of the supremacy of law, they are and long have been regarded as a separate and independent part of the Constitution.”

The Chief Justice can not even vote. He does not have the right to speak on behalf of the public. Speaking on behalf of the public is the duty of elected, but silent justice critics across Canada. Mr Kennedy is speaking about Canadians Charter Rights to a trial that is free of favouritism or bias and innocent until proven guilty in a competent court. If the court is not competent, there can not be a verdict of guilty. It is the responsibility of Chief Justice Green to insure the justices in his court are competent. It is not Mr Kennedy’s comments destroying the public’s faith in the impartiality of judges, it is Chief Justice Green’s. and he has placed his court into disrepute by his actions. Chief Justice Green’s actions are interdicting, injunction, and injudicious. Mr Kennedy has found out like many other Canadians that he has no Charter Rights. Justice Green’s court is not based on the Constitution, it is based on fear and intimidation.

Silence by the Canadian Bar and Trial Lawyers Associations will be seen by the public as an admittance that the disciplinary hearing is a message to Canadian lawyers. “Toe the line, or else”. Law Societies across Canada have not been protecting the public, they have been protecting dishonest, corrupt lawyers and an increasingly dysfunctional administration of justice. Lawyer self-regulation in some Australian States has been stopped. In England the government is going to end the practice of lawyers dealing with complaints against lawyers. Canada should be next.

A judicial inquiry that examines the role that trial judges and jurors may have had in a wrongful conviction would be good judgment. It is not just biases, political hacks or incompetent judges, it is also incompetent lawyers. To deny standing to the Trial Lawyers Association at a judicial inquiry is irresponsible. Innocent until proven guilty has no meaning in Canada. They are just worthless words. The simple concept that a judicial inquiry is not to find unjust acts and punish wrongdoers, but to prevent future unfair and unjust acts, also has no meaning. This simple concept was not understood at the Stonechild Inquiry. This resulted in two police officers finding out that they had no Charter Rights. We are all at fault when we allow a newspaper to be judge and jury.

Open discussion will enhance the administration of justice, Justice Green’s Court and the Court of Queen’s Bench will not come crumbling down. Suppressing the exchange of ideas in a trepidation of reprisals from the Law Societies or the Canadian Judicial Counsel will result in the continuation of, “Where Angels Fear to Tread“. Canadians recently voted for the greatest Canadian, the father of universal health care was the winner. Would Canadians be as proud of their justice system today, as they are of universal health care, if a book written by Elizabeth Bethune Campbell in 1935 was not kept locked in the Librarian’s Desk at Osgoode Hall? Could this happen to-day, ask Richard Klassen and a Saskatoon homeowner? Justice Paul Hrabinsky and Madam Justice Dovell need to read this book, and when they are done, pass it on, to Saskatchewan attorney general, Frank Quennell.

For years and years, over a generation of Saskatoon children have heard their parents talking, its been on television, in newspapers, the internet, radio and on telephone poles. Police officers kill, highest crime rate in Canada, racism, racism and continuing racism, police officers persecute innocent people, innocent people are sent to jail, “it is an evil place“, judges protect corrupt police officers and don‘t take candy from a stranger.

What part of harmful don‘t you understand?

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