Will the Charter survive Halloween?.Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada..Every citizen has the right to move to any province..Or do we?.Inalienable rights? Rights endowed by the Creator?.Not if Brian Peckford's Charter challenge is deemed moot on October 31..No more do laws need to be made by Parliament, by the normal checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches. A federal minister can draft his or her own mandate (which, on a public level, operates as legislation) knowing that by the time any public outcry is finally heard by the courts, the mandate can be dropped and the matter deemed moot..Give your mandate, say, 10 months. Hold it over your people, long after every other civilized country has dropped theirs; trumpet through the press the mandate's purely scientific and unpolitical basis; then drop it once any evidence surfaces in the preliminary stages of court proceedings that could otherwise bring your skeletons out of the closet..Now that the mandate is over, your lawyers will argue that the judicial question is settled..The court tosses the case and truth cannot see the light of day..Meanwhile six million Canadians were barred from travelling in or out of their own country, from saying farewell to dying loved ones or visiting their children in hospital. Canadians who have had their lives ripped apart. Canadians who no longer trust the institutions that once protected their safety and dignity..The judicial system is effectively barred to them..This is the grim precedent for Canada that will be decided on Halloween..And it's a precedent that leaves in our Charter a gaping hole of “special circumstances” that every future narcissist PM could drive a truck through..So why would a Prime Minister fight so hard to squash our Charter rights?.If Transport Canada did indeed follow the science and receive the “follow the science” evidence from Public Health, and if there was no undue pressure applied by the PM, what's the big deal?.If indeed Canada had a uniquely Canadian version of Covid requiring special Canadian science to combat it—as evidenced by the fact that among all G7 countries, Canada was an outlier, having dropped our mandate 3-4 months after everyone else, and imposing a domestic restriction on travel that no one else did—what's the big deal?.Surely the government could make a convincing case that for the first time in Canadian history, Phase Three of a vaccine trial needed be done on the entire population, and the data gathered from millions of Canadians?.It could explain why Public Health Canada never did recommend vaccination to Transport Canada, as was revealed under cross examination of the chief epidemiologist..I noted two weeks ago the case of two British immigrants to Canada, Karl Harrison and Shaun Rickard, who were unable to visit loved ones in Britain, and are now waiting to hear if their case against the mandate will be dismissed or also deemed moot..As Rupa Subramanya reports on the case, describing exchanges between Transport Canada and Public Health, “the evidence to justify the mandate was never handed over.”.The lawers for the government in both cases are arguing that there is nothing to see here. Mandate dropped. Judicial question settled..And yet, as of today the Transport Canada website still calls the mandates “suspended”, and Trudeau has already issued a not-so-veiled threat that if we don't get to 80 or 90 percent updated vaccination, provinces will have no choice but to reissue restrictions..The government knows it's not history. And at least six million Canadians know that the mandate question is far from settled..In a Viva Frei interview, Keith Wilson, Peckford's lawyer, recounts these closing comments to the Federal Court judge: “How we resolve disputes peacefully in a civil society is through the courts, through engaging lawyers, and having courts rule on important issues that are in dispute. What happens if we block that institution, or if that institution isn't available to Canadians to have that adjudication? What peaceful options does that leave Canadians?”
Will the Charter survive Halloween?.Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada..Every citizen has the right to move to any province..Or do we?.Inalienable rights? Rights endowed by the Creator?.Not if Brian Peckford's Charter challenge is deemed moot on October 31..No more do laws need to be made by Parliament, by the normal checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches. A federal minister can draft his or her own mandate (which, on a public level, operates as legislation) knowing that by the time any public outcry is finally heard by the courts, the mandate can be dropped and the matter deemed moot..Give your mandate, say, 10 months. Hold it over your people, long after every other civilized country has dropped theirs; trumpet through the press the mandate's purely scientific and unpolitical basis; then drop it once any evidence surfaces in the preliminary stages of court proceedings that could otherwise bring your skeletons out of the closet..Now that the mandate is over, your lawyers will argue that the judicial question is settled..The court tosses the case and truth cannot see the light of day..Meanwhile six million Canadians were barred from travelling in or out of their own country, from saying farewell to dying loved ones or visiting their children in hospital. Canadians who have had their lives ripped apart. Canadians who no longer trust the institutions that once protected their safety and dignity..The judicial system is effectively barred to them..This is the grim precedent for Canada that will be decided on Halloween..And it's a precedent that leaves in our Charter a gaping hole of “special circumstances” that every future narcissist PM could drive a truck through..So why would a Prime Minister fight so hard to squash our Charter rights?.If Transport Canada did indeed follow the science and receive the “follow the science” evidence from Public Health, and if there was no undue pressure applied by the PM, what's the big deal?.If indeed Canada had a uniquely Canadian version of Covid requiring special Canadian science to combat it—as evidenced by the fact that among all G7 countries, Canada was an outlier, having dropped our mandate 3-4 months after everyone else, and imposing a domestic restriction on travel that no one else did—what's the big deal?.Surely the government could make a convincing case that for the first time in Canadian history, Phase Three of a vaccine trial needed be done on the entire population, and the data gathered from millions of Canadians?.It could explain why Public Health Canada never did recommend vaccination to Transport Canada, as was revealed under cross examination of the chief epidemiologist..I noted two weeks ago the case of two British immigrants to Canada, Karl Harrison and Shaun Rickard, who were unable to visit loved ones in Britain, and are now waiting to hear if their case against the mandate will be dismissed or also deemed moot..As Rupa Subramanya reports on the case, describing exchanges between Transport Canada and Public Health, “the evidence to justify the mandate was never handed over.”.The lawers for the government in both cases are arguing that there is nothing to see here. Mandate dropped. Judicial question settled..And yet, as of today the Transport Canada website still calls the mandates “suspended”, and Trudeau has already issued a not-so-veiled threat that if we don't get to 80 or 90 percent updated vaccination, provinces will have no choice but to reissue restrictions..The government knows it's not history. And at least six million Canadians know that the mandate question is far from settled..In a Viva Frei interview, Keith Wilson, Peckford's lawyer, recounts these closing comments to the Federal Court judge: “How we resolve disputes peacefully in a civil society is through the courts, through engaging lawyers, and having courts rule on important issues that are in dispute. What happens if we block that institution, or if that institution isn't available to Canadians to have that adjudication? What peaceful options does that leave Canadians?”
