REALity May 2019
BOOK REVIEW
FROM DEMOCRACY TO JUDICIAL DICTATORSHIP IN CANADA:
The Untold Story of the Charter of Rights
By Gwendolyn Landolt, LLB, Patrick Redmond, PhD, and Douglas Alderson, MA, LLM
Pages 332, Interim Publishing
This book is available on Amazon.ca at a cost of Cdn. $26.77. Please note that with a minimum donation of $100 to REAL Women of Canada, we will send you a complimentary copy of the book, if requested.
| PART I: Background to the Charter Chapter 1 – Previous Constitutional Efforts Chapter 2 – Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau: His History and Background Chapter 3 – Trudeau enters Politics Chapter 4 – Push for a Constitutional Consensus |
The authors of this book expose what no one else in this political correctness obsessed country has done before. They reveal the truth about the Charter of Rights and the tool it has become for judges to change Canadian society from a nation based on time-tested Judeo-Christian principles, to a radical left-wing nation. The Charter has made Canada perhaps the most “progressive” nation in the world. This was done by a combination of lies, deceit and manipulation that went on behind the scenes during the Charter debate, and by the arrogation of power by appointed judges who have improperly assumed the responsibility of determining public policy.
This all occurred without any input from the public, which was a helpless bystander in the power play by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his acolytes to change Canada according to Trudeau’s personal dictates. The result nearly 40 years later is that Canada faces a constitutional crisis that calls into question the legitimacy of Parliament, the courts and the Rule of Law.
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| PART II: Shaping the Charter of Rights Chapter 5 – The Feminist Movement Chapter 6 – The Pro-Life Movement Chapter 7 – Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution Chapter 8 – The Progressive Conservative Party Chapter 9 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Lobbying the UK Parliament Chapter 10 – The Federal and Provincial Agreement on the Charter |
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| PART III: The Aftermath of the Charter Chapter 11 – Canadian Judges Assume Legislative Role Under the Charter Chapter 12 – The Scandal of the Canadian Judicial Council Chapter 13 – Judge-made Laws Abandon Traditional Values |
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| PART IV: A Time for Reckoning: Judicial Dictatorship or Responsible Government Chapter 14 – Reclaiming Responsible Government Chapter 15 – Towards a Renewed Constitution |
Pierre Elliott Trudeau:
The Ideologue Behind the Charter
The book recalls that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was an ardent socialist/Marxist (his uncompleted doctoral thesis explored the interplay between Catholicism and Marxism) who claimed to be a “communist and a Catholic” (an oxymoron). He was identified by a prominent Catholic cleric in Quebec as a “Canadian Karl Marx”.
Trudeau travelled extensively to communist countries in his youth and became an admirer and close friend of Cuba’s communist leader, Fidel Castro. Trudeau also deeply admired China’s communist regime under Mao Tse-tung. While in office, Trudeau provided a federal loan of $100 million in 1976 to assist in the re-election of his friend and Marxist/socialist, Michael Manley, of Jamaica.
Trudeau became a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, by his own admission, solely for the purpose of using it as a way to change Canada’s constitution to suit his own personal perspective. He had no respect for members of Parliament or for the public, but preferred that elitist appointed judges make fundamental decisions on the rights and privileges of Canadians. To achieve this goal, during the Charter debate Trudeau engaged in dishonest behaviour, deliberately misleading the public about the purpose of the Charter and the effect it would have on Canadian society.
The book relates the fact that the pro-life movement was one of the few organizations during the Charter debate that fully understood the implications of the Charter. This was not only in regard to the abortion issue, but also, it accurately predicted in 1980-1982, that the Charter would impact other fundamental social arrangements such as same sex marriages and homosexual adoptions, etc., which has indeed come to pass.
The book further discloses that the feminist movement, which has proclaimed that it had great success in shaping the Charter’s formulation, did not do so, with two exceptions. They lost their focus during the Charter debate, failing to understand the implications of some of the major provisions in the Charter, and concentrated instead on an insignificant provision in the Charter that they had insisted be included, but which has proven to be largely legally meaningless.
Judicial Activism:
The Bloodless Revolution
The authors show how the Supreme Court of Canada has subsequently interpreted, manipulated and abused the Charter to increase the court’s power and influence, contrary to the clear intention of the drafters of the Charter and Canada’s constitutional patrimony. Time and again, judges have thrown aside judicial restraint and abandoned legal merit and precedent as the basis of their “reasoning”, and applied instead their own political ideology to reach their decisions.
From Democracy to Judicial Dictatorship exposes that in case after case, the court failed to apply legislation as passed by Parliament which represented the consent of the governed, and that these judicial elites veered away from their proper role of interpreting laws and instead have made laws, thereby making themselves the final authority for determining public policy. As a consequence, the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada are now the most powerful individuals in Canadian history.
As the authors note, even former Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin admitted that the Supreme Court was determining public policy when she stated:
“My job is simply to listen to what the parties have to say … to think about what’s best for Canadian society on this particular problem that’s before us, and give it my best judgment after listening to also, my eight other colleagues…”
The authors question under what authority these judges are determining “what’s best for Canadian society”. That is the responsibility of Parliament. Judges are not qualified to make such decisions as they are not equipped to deal with the broad implications of such decisions. Unfortunately, however, they have the mistaken belief that somehow they are superior to the public and, therefore, justified in changing Canada’s social, political and cultural values. The Supreme Court’s judicial activism has reduced the public to an impotent bystander, irrelevant in the formation of laws.
The authors reiterate that it is Parliament, representing the people, that should decide what is in the best interests of the community. This is not the view of the current Chief Justice, Richard Wagner, however, who stated that he is “proud” that the Supreme Court of Canada is “the most progressive in the world”. This indicates that Supreme Court decisions are not decided on legal merit and precedent, but rather on the judges’ desire to change Canada into a “progressive” nation.
Reclaiming Responsible Government:
Constitutional Renewal is Possible
Finally, From Democracy to Judicial Dictatorship offers profound observations on the culture war at play today and recommends constitutional renewal based upon a reform of the judicial appointments process, reform of the problematic provincial law societies, and reform of the current inadequate legal education in order to provide some balance to correct our constitutional crisis.
The final two chapters of the book discuss how this can be achieved. The authors believe that these reforms are necessary and possible, so that the courts and Parliament uphold their respective roles based on principles of responsible government and electoral accountability, to ensure that Canada, once again, becomes strong and free, rooted in the consent of the public. These changes will not be easy, but the authors insist that judicial activism and the takeover of Canada by judges must be stopped. This book is a revelation for most of us who have been deliberately kept in the dark about a bloodless revolution which has undermined our country and seriously called into question the sustainability of a free and self-governing people.