Lazy Lawmakers Cause Judicial and Administrative Activism

There is an irony of some politicians who are constantly complaining about activist judges and interfering bureaucrats these days. I’ll bet that far-right grumpiness is wafting through the political air in Ottawa these days.

There needs to be some truth brought to power methinks. Dear politician, the way to avoid judicial and bureaucratic “activist” interpretations of your laws it to pass better and clearer laws. It is that simple.

We too often see weasel words and implications woven into legislation because politicians seem to lack the courage to say what they mean and mean what they say when they draft our laws. That intellectual laziness or lack of intellectual integrity merely invites activist interpretations BECAUSE it creates a need for interpretation. This clarity rule of law making cannot be iron clad and absolute obviously. Some laws are living things and are intentionally designed to have adaptive interpretations to deal with and accommodate a changing society – like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for instance.

And while you are at it Dear politician, when you pass laws, show some respect for jurisdiction and the Constitution in your law making. A few years ago the Alberta legislature passed a law defining marriage in Alberta during the same-sex debates. They did it even after being told through undisputed legal opinions that it was outside their jurisdiction. At the same time that Alberta government was very happy to tell the federal government to keep its face out of provincial jurisdiction like education (remember Millennial Scholarships?) and health care. I suspect this pretensive political positioning was more about hubris and stupidity than it was about mere hypocrisy.

Contentious legislation that requires social, economic and ecological values trade-offs are exactly why we have democracies and the politicians are preferred our proxies to make these hard choices on our behalf. When we vote for you and grant you our consent to govern us we do not expect you to take the easy way out. We expect your insight, wisdom and judgment to be applied to serve the best interests of our society to the best of your ability.

We know politics is a difficult job and often a messy business. Get over it or get out of it. When you don’t do the difficult jobs and intentionally leave philosophical fuzziness in your legislation you are inviting, no you are requiring, the courts to be there. All to often they end up doing your job.

The problem is usually not judicial or administrative activism. Most often the problem is inadequate politicians.

So Mr. Harper, get off the backs of Elections Canada. If you want to eliminate the wearing of veils at voting stations – say so in the law and make it absolutely clear. You and the rest of the politicians were already forewarned by your administration this would happen and you let it slide. Not good enough. Not good enough at all.

Greens Breathing Down the NDP Necks in Ontario Election

The Greens (11%) are within the margin of error of the NDP (13%) support in the first poll in the Ontario election since the writ was dropped.

Come on Greens!

Politicians Are Pandering Over "Veiled" Threats.

The silliness that has emerged over the “veiled threat” is unhelpful at so many levels. The allegations abound as to the motives. Some say it is political pander to Quebec angst over religious minorities in the face of the by-elections next week. Others say it is Harper taking on Elections Canada because he is ticked over them disallowing the advertising scheme the Cons did in the last election. Others accuse Harper of using this to change the channel on the advertising scam issues with Elections Canada and to focus on this voter identification issue.

Still others see this turn of events as politicians of all stripes talking out of both sides of their mouths since they all just agreed and passed the legislation amendments that enabled this silliness to prevail and now they are blaming the Elections Canada administration.

The Cons have added a partisan spin to this saying Dion is flip flopping on veiled voting. The Cons make a stretch in their own credulity when one day he says he does not like Election Canada’s decision and asks them to revisit it. Two days later Dion say he still disagrees with Elections Canada decision not to revisit it but he can live with the law as it is. A visit to the CPC official website shows Dion's picture 3 times and Harper's only once. Are the Cons that afraid of Dion?

This is no Dion flip flop it is enlightened accommodation. How you ask? The Muslim community itself has said women are more than prepared to raise their veils and identify themselves – provided it is to another woman. In fact they do it now when doing banking, crossing a border or writing an exam.

People have a responsibility to reveal their identities for purposes of voting. That problem is solved in very practical terms already according to Muslim leaders. Those veiled woman will willingly show their faces to another female official at the polling station for purposes of identification. That is no different to my mind than same-sex personal security searches at airports. So the posturing and pandering around this stuff is pointless and obviously purely political…and the politicians involved should be embarrassed.

What I am really wondering about all this is why a women would choose to submit to such attire in a free and democratic society like Canada in the first place. I know I have a lot to learn about this culture and its beliefs. I have made some effort to try and understand but I have to admit – I don’t get it as to why women are wearing burkas, abayas and niquabs in Canada. It is still pretty foreign to my values and very hard to comprehend.

What that leads me to wonder is will our high minded and principled politicians do when a woman wishes to breach such religious requirements? Will they rush to her aid and support her individual expression of her rights in the face of some inevitable cultural-community pressures? Or will they choose to run for cover themselves?

Denis Ducharme Doesn't Want to Run Again.

Denis Ducharme (Bonnyville-Cold Lake) says he is not running for the PC’s in the next election. This is unfortunate. He has done much to foster a positive change the culture of governance in Alberta over how well he handled the Marie Lake issue.

Politicians tend to forget to whom they owe their first loyalty in our partisan political system. It is not the leader. It is not the party. It is the constituency. Denis reminded us of that reality in the past few months and he reaffirmed the appropriate ranking of the relationships and responsibilities that a politician needs to honour.

We all owe him a debt of gratitude to setting the relationship record straight and especially for following through and sticking to his guns. In our system of government, it is after all the responsibility of all backbenchers – including and especially on the government side - to keep the Executive on their toes. Denis did that is spades in the past few months.

This political life is not an easy job. It takes commitment, courage and character. Ducharme was a quiet and competent exemplar in all three aspects. I can hardly blame Denis for stepping down after 10 years but I for one will miss him. Thanks for the work you have done on behalf of Alberta.

Ontario Goes to the Polls - and We Better be Watching What Happens

Ontario just went into official election mode today. The outcomes are uncertain because it is an election and campaigns matter. I recommend the rest of us watch this election closely…particularly the Alberta Tories.

The best seat in the Blogosphere to view the Ontario election as it evolves will be frequent visits to the site known as democraticSpace.

I have a link to democraticSpace on this site so you can easily find it from here.

BTW Pollster Ipsos Reid has joined with this Blogger and he is providing them with seat projections and analysis during the elections. Good for him.