PARLIAMENT HILL—The Conservative government is using “authoritarian tactics” by overriding existing laws to deliver on longstanding promises to the Conservative Party’s base in Western Canada, a leading expert in constitutional law says.A Federal Court ruling Wednesday found the government’s rush to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s powers without consulting grain growers, as required by the existing Wheat Board Act, is an “affront to the rule of law.”
The dramatic ruling prompted University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes and opposition MPs to link tactics the government is using to end the Wheat Board monopoly with legislation that will end the federal long-gun registry and, contrary to federal record protection laws, destroy its entire database of information on firearms and their owners.
In both cases, the critics said, the Conservatives are using extraordinary overrides in new legislation to do what they could not otherwise do under the limits and restrictions of existing law.
Federal Court Judge Douglas Campbell ruled Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminster, Sask.) showed “disregard for the rule of law” when he sponsored legislation, Bill C-18, that proposes to eliminate sections of the existing Wheat Board Act that require the government to hold a vote among growers before adding or removing types of grain from the board’s marketing oversight. The judge said that provision would also apply to dismantling the board entirely.
“What I find really interesting is for the judge, Justice Campbell, to use the words rule of law,” Prof. Mendes told The Hill Times.
Prof. Mendes said the same principle applies to Bill C-19, Eliminating the Long-Gun Registry, legislation that includes sections overriding record-protection and preservation clauses in the Privacy Act and the Library and Archives of Canada Act to destroy all existing records related to the federal registry for rifles and shotguns. Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault expressed concern about the legislation when they testified at the House Public Safety and National Security hearings into Bill C-19.
“It’s basically the government using—I hate to say this word and I say it with some reticence—using authoritarian tactics to override legitimate expectations and in a smaller scale, democratic expectations of citizens,” Prof. Mendes said. “With the Wheat Board it’s farmers. With their Reform Party roots you would think they were in favour of going back to the grassroots to seek their opinions, but suddenly with a majority government all that has disappeared.”
Prof. Mendes explained that rule of law does not mean rule by law. “Rule by law is what we see in authoritarian systems such as China and I’m sad to say we seem to be following more the Russian model than the Canadian democratic model,” he said. “Essentially what you’re starting to see is what we see in Russia, which is called managed democracy, which is really frightening to some extent.”
In the Commons, Mr. Ritz said the government will press ahead with the bill to dismantle the Wheat Board and also appeal the Federal Court ruling, quoting an earlier statement made by NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.), about Parliament’s right to overturn legislation put in place by previous governments.
Mr. Martin, who has led the New Democrat attack against the government’s Wheat Board plans, later said Mr. Ritz quoted him out of context and argued the government first should have complied with existing law and held a vote first among grain producers. He also likened the case to the government’s plan to override existing and separate laws in order to destroy the gun registry records.
“Frankly, they showed a distinct disrespect for the law as it stands, in their zeal to introduce a new law,” Mr. Martin said. “Yes, they have the right to make laws, subject to certain provisions. One, you can’t violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and two, you can’t be in direct violation of existing laws. That’s what the judge has said. In the context of amending legislation you have to respect the law that exists.”
NDP MP Françoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.) said the Wheat Board ruling and the government’s deployment of special overriding clauses to destroy the firearms record is evidence Mr. Harper’s government has decided to ignore opposing views of citizens as it presses ahead to pass key promises made over the past six years to core supporters.
“It’s a fact, they think they have the truth somewhere and past their view, there is nothing,” Ms. Boivin said. “Everybody else is wrong but them. They move, even if it’s against a wall, they’ll hit the wall, which most of the time is a Supreme Court decision, and they might have to face some others in the gun registry. This country will not be more secure after that legislation.”
Origin
Source: Hill Times
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