"No Agreements Are Safe From Judicial Activism"

Canada and the US are suffering from the same evil, left-wing activist judges running roughshod over the rights of the people and the legislatures.

From Everyday For Life Canada

Today, we post a great article titled, "No Agreements Are Safe From Judicial Activism," by the leader Rod Taylor of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. Judicial activism again strikes again in Canada. Social policies and laws should come from elected Members of Parliament not judges. It's how Canada got abortion, euthanasia, same-sex "marriage' and other court imposed laws. This time the issue is with illegal migrants. Here's the column:

As Canada descends further down the road of judge-made law, a Federal Court judge has once again imposed her opinion on the country. After all, why shouldn’t an unelected judge change the rules for 37 million Canadians and their 338 elected MPs? We should be getting used to it by now. International agreements are not exempt from judicial tampering. A federal court has now declared Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States to be “unconstitutional”. That’s code for “I don’t like this law; get rid of it”.

Thanks to serial judicial activism at the Supreme Court and the lower courts, we now have abortion-on-demand throughout every stage of pregnancy up until the moment of birth, same-sex marriage, medically-assisted suicide, and restrictive limits on free speech. Courts make their rulings, throw out laws they don’t like, “read into” the Charter words that they like—without going through the approved process—and generally redraw public policy to suit their own opinions.

On July 22, 2020, Federal Court Judge, Ann Marie McDonald, declared the Safe Third Country Agreement to be unconstitutional. She did not like the fact that illegal border-crossers could be sent back to the US as long as they were not in danger of torture or execution. The Safe Third Country Agreement—referred to as STCA—declares that people who show up at our borders claiming refugee status must actually be refugees. They must show that they are fleeing from a country where they are at risk of persecution, torture or death. When the Agreement came into effect on December 29, 2004, Canada and the US mutually recognized each other as civilized countries where people are not arbitrarily tortured or executed.

In recent years, under our current government, illegal border-crossers, “undocumented migrants” as some like to call them, have increasingly been given a hospitable welcome in Canada, with generous provision of lodging, transportation, healthcare, meals and assistance in becoming permanent residents—much to the frustration of those who have actually followed proper procedures for entry into Canada. The motives of the Trudeau government for pandering to and pampering illegals are certainly suspect. Many think the PM views the flood of immigrants and refugees as simply a source of Liberal-voters-in-training (like the graduating classes of most public high schools and universities).

In fact, the opinion of the judge who ruled in this case may be partially due to a general distaste and distrust for America under President Donald Trump. The narrative that the
US can no longer be considered a “safe” country is ridiculous. The fact that Americans want to defend their borders from illegal border-crossers is no surprise; that should be the policy for any sovereign nation. As in the US, so also in Canada, there are those who oppose any restrictions on the free movement of people across borders (mass migration). The arrest and detention or eviction of those who have entered without permission is not “persecution”. It’s simply the application of due process and the rule of law.

Another question raised by this judgment has to do with the scope of protection offered by Canada’s Charter. The logical view of the Canadian Charter is that it applies to citizens and legal residents of Canada, not to every person on the planet. To grant Charter protections to every person who manages to reach Canada’s soil—legally or illegally—would seem the height of foolishness. The reason for defining refugee status is to identify the circumstances that qualify individuals to receive the exceptional compassion of a civilized nation-state. Those walking across the border from the US to Canada (or vice-versa) are not people fleeing machine guns, beheadings and lashings.

 Read the rest of the article HERE.