People often look at me askance when I express my contempt for Canada, my default country. If these reasons weren’t enough:
- The socialist healthcare system (a pregnant woman in Abbotsford was airlifted to Calgary to have her baby some weeks ago, because there were no apparently no maternity beds available in the entire province of BC) which we are double-taxed for (federal and provincial tax, plus montly premium payments!).
- “Hate-crime” laws — might as well call them “thought-crime” laws.
Along with the institutionalized corruption and unaccountability of the hereditary government, Damian Penny highlights its mockery of “strengthening democracy”:
So Paul Martin has begun to rectify the “democratic deficit” by making appointments to the high court more accountable and open to scrutiny, right? Well, there’s a catch. There’s always a catch. Several of them, actually:
- the two new nominees for the Supreme Court will be announced today. The hearings take place tomorrow.
- the judicial nominees do not even appear before the committee. Instead, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler will field questions.
- the panel cannot veto the Prime Minister’s chosen nominees.
- and, finally, there’s no formal mechanism for the panel to object to the nominees, make recommendations or even hold any kind of vote on the matter.
There very notion that Parliament should actually have any power over appointments to the Supreme Court, of course, raises the spectre of – say it with me, folks – “American-style confirmation hearings” in which potential justices are “grilled” over their background and opinions. (The horror!) In Canada, of course, there are no checks on the PM’s power to stack the court as he sees fit. And in an age when the court wields unprecedented power, it’s absolutely disheartening to see Canadians, in their Canadian manner, just accept it. Aside from the arguments over health care, there is no better example of how the dreaded phrase “American-style” effectively shuts down debate in this country.